


Despuis Le Debut

by Andrew_Marie



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Fighter AU, Highschool AU, If I could say more, M/M, Minor Character Death, Swearing, Violence, i would, minor gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-10
Updated: 2013-11-10
Packaged: 2018-01-01 02:47:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 30,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1039441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andrew_Marie/pseuds/Andrew_Marie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Highschool/Fighter AU. In the internationally funded program, code named Northern Lights, teenagers are volunteered to learn how to battle in different forms, be it magic, weapons, or hand to hand combat. Michael is chosen as one of the students. Gavin is a student that wasn’t picked for the UK’s branch of the program and is swiped up by the US’s branch. Michael and Gavin are assigned to share a dorm room. After an incident in the nearby small town, though, the two are thrust head first into a group of promising students led by the weapons master into a battle unlike any other they’ve experienced.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day 1

                Michael really didn’t anticipate that by filling out an application given to him by his old math teacher, he’d end up underground in a large auditorium for a school in the middle of nowhere. Then again, he also didn’t believe that he’d end up with the knowledge that there were bad people in the world; bad people with the ability to use magic.

                Michael’s school in New Jersey had been given a few applications for some students the faculty determined were “gifted enough” to be able to qualify for a fancy program. Michael’s math teacher gave him the sheet, only parting with the words, “I think this would work well for you, Jones.” Damn teachers.

                So two weeks later, here sits Michael. Underground, next to a guy he met at the airport. What was his name? Day? May? Jay, maybe.

                The principal, whose name Michael didn’t catch, continued talking on the stage about something Michael wasn’t too interested in. Something about bad guys or villains or something. The man kept going on for a while before Michael caught one word that kept his attention on what he was saying. “Magic.”

                _Magic isn’t real. Magic’s a thing from Disney and Harry Potter and fairytales and shit. It’s fiction. No, there’s no such thing._

                “This world has many secrets. You’ve been chosen to be informed of some of the biggest ones of all. You’ve been lied to for years. Magic exists, creating a world unlike any other, and like what many stories have said; magic is often used for evil. You’ve been chosen to be warriors, fighters against those who chose to use magic for bad rather than for good. You’ve chosen what you want to do through your answers on your applications. Some of you will stand up and fight fire with fire, magic with magic. Others will fight with their bodies, using their physical being to stand up to their foes. Even fewer of you have chosen to fight these battles with weapons, extensions of your being. That is what you’ve been chosen to do. That’s what gift you’ve been granted by those who didn’t even know you; your old high school teachers, who believed that you could be a part of a huge movement to protect the innocent from those who’ve chosen to use their abilities for bad things, evil things,” the principal said, the jovial tone he was using beforehand gone.

                “He’s not serious, right?” Michael asked X-ray Machine.

                “I don’t know, to be honest. I’m just like you, remember? Wasn’t told anything beforehand.”

                “Fucking great,” Michael muttered.

                “Now, you’ve all been assigned dorm rooms and dorm buddies. Please take note that these people will be your dorm mates for the entire time you attend school here. Also take note that you absolutely can NOT change schools. You’ll be dismissed momentarily to the foyer, where you’ll go to the tables with the first letter of your last name. Example: If your last name is Burns, you’ll go to the table with the letters A-G. On the paper you’ll be given, it’ll have the dorm building and room number. It’ll also have a separate, single digit room number on it. You are to go to that room after you get the paper. Keep the paper, because I can guarantee if you get rid of your paper, you won’t know where your dorm room is. If you have any questions, I’ll be here for a while, so after you get your paper, go ahead and ask me. I’ll be seeing you around,” the principal said, his face changing into that of a large smile.

                “Come on then, Michael!” Bay Watch said, grabbing Michael’s jacket sleeve and dragging him towards the exit.

                After separating to their tables (though standing next to each other in their respective lines) and getting their papers, they started heading towards the room Lay’s Potato Chips had been assigned to. Room 2, a room on the left side of the hallway on the right side of the building.

                “Well, I’ll see you in the mess hall, I guess,” Crayola Crayon said, fidgeting nervously.

                “I’ll see you then,” Michael said, turning to leave. “Wait,” Michael turned back to Ashtray, grinning sheepishly. “I don’t actually remember your name.”

                “It’s Ray,” Ray laughed light-heartedly.

                “Well then Ray, I’ll see you at the mess hall whenever we get outta here,” Michael said, waving to Ray as he turned around the head to room 3, his classroom.

                When Michael reached his destination, he was a bit surprised, to say the least. There were no desks in the room; instead, there were folding chairs with fewer, more comfortable looking chairs stacked against the wall near the door. In the front of the classroom was a large window that, length-wise, stretched the whole wall but was about a foot shorter than the ceiling and a foot higher than the floor. To the right from the door, there was a staircase heading up to what appeared to be a second room with another window. To the left of the entrance was a door to what Michael assumed was the “classroom’s” closet.

                Most of the chairs were taken, only a few between groups of people remained. Michael chose to sit near the front, between two pairs of people who seemed to know each other.

                Shortly after Michael got situated, a man who appeared a fair bit older than any of the students came down from the second floor, looking nonchalant about the nervous bunch of students.

                The aloof looking man took role; Michael only noticing one no-show through the whole class. The man seemed a little surprised but said nothing about the matter, heading straight into a lecture.

                “First things first, I’m Geoff. Don’t ask for any other thing to call me, you won’t get anything. I’m here to be a guide of sorts into what you’re gonna be learning and becoming. You’ve already been told a good bit about what we do. We fight baddies. But what you guys get to do is different from what the other classes do. You have more… Freedom in what you’re doing than they do. You get to choose how to fight, what to fight with, etcetera etcetera. And I get to tutor you on how to. Business aside now, I’ll tell you a little about me and then I’ll let you guys go. I’m married to the person I was partnered with while I was attending here, her name’s Griffon, and I have a daughter with her. I got injured on the field and I’m not supposed to head back out for a while.  A few years ago, there was an… Incident and I was hired to take over this class afterwards. Not much else to tell, really.”

                Well, not what was expected but hey, he’s a teacher in some form or another. A few students raised their hands. Geoff picked one of them, readying himself for a barrage of questions.

                “There aren’t many people in this class. There were tons in the auditorium. Why is that?” the girl asked. She was one of three in the class.

                “This class isn’t as… Desirable, I guess. The group in room 1 is more desirable because of the lack of class days, though it’s more painful than the other two. The group in room 2 is incredibly simple, just a memorization game. But room 2 is where most baddies come from. We typically get looked down upon because neither class seems to think that this class deserves what we get. We have a whole field to train on because we’re the foot soldiers in this war of magic. Room 1 sacrifices their bodies but we get called into battle far more often than they do because we’re more protected, I guess. It’s unfair but we need to be able to pick up the slack of the goddamn slackers from the other two groups,” Geoff said, slight frustration evident on his face. He picked another.

                “You said we have flexibility that the other classes don’t. What is that?” the boy asked.

                “We get weapons. All kinds of weapons. The cause for the incident that hired me uses a “hideaway” scythe. It folds up into a compact pole that’s no bigger than a flashlight. She, uh…. Well, she cut the previous teacher in half in a demonstration,” a large portion of the class gasped at the knowledge. Michael pondered if he’d get to meet this girl. She seemed competent at what she was trained to do. “He was way past his prime anyway. She even agreed about that,” Geoff said, seeming to find the memory a funny one. He picked another student who had a hand raised. The boy he chose seemed to be more academic than someone who would be capable of using a weapon.

                “We were told on the applications that we needed to be gifted to be accepted. Are there gonna be… school things? Like, learning,” the boy placed an accent on learning.

                “There are. That’s what Saturdays are for. There’s three other classrooms meant for that. If you look on a phone, the numbers line up. We’re in room 6. Oh right, I should probably let you know class dates. We meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and have academics on Saturday with everyone else. The physical guys meet on Saturday and Sunday only. The magic users meet on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday,” he said, becoming serious again. Michael raised his hand, grinning. Geoff didn’t call on him though, choosing the only other person in the room willing to voice their question.

                “What’ll become of us when this is over?” the boy said, truly nervous sounding

                “Whatever you want to happen. The girl, Andrew Marie, married her partner in crime Nathan and they work together. I did a similar thing, though Griffon doesn’t really get out into the same field as I do… Did. You aren’t required to be a part of this battle, but by volunteering yourself to be where you are now, if you decide you don’t want to be readily available like Andrew and Nathan are, you will be placed in a draft of sorts. Simply put, even if you don’t want to be part of this war after this, you may still be dragged in. Though I guess a benefit would be that rather than the country’s draft system, you’re in this one instead,” he said, grinning. That’s relieving. Geoff called on Michael, seeming interested in the red head’s question.

                “When do we start?” Michael smirked, gaining the class’s attention.

                “Tomorrow,” Geoff smiled.

* * *

 

Just as Michael promised Ray, the two met in the mess hall after the classes were dismissed, though Michael’s ending much earlier than Ray’s. The two shared what they found out about their classes and what they thought of what they’d gotten themselves into.

                “But seriously, I get to learn magic. Magic, Michael!” Ray said, sounding excited.

                “Weaponry. I get to learn to swing a sword or shoot a gun. Apparently, a few years back there was a girl who cut her teacher in half using a scythe,” Michael leaned in, acting like this was some big rumor.

                “What’d they do with her?” Ray asked, seeming interested about the girl.

                “She works in the field now. She married her partner and they work together,” Michael said, eating his generic school food. Up in front of the mass of tables, the principal stood once again. He seemed very happy about getting to stand in front of these students again.

                “Glad to see you all didn’t get lost or anything. Don’t worry; I know the food is bad. It’s supposed to be because not only are you being taught how to fight, but how to live. You’re gonna be given an allowance of sorts that’ll pay for food, clothes, anything you need,” he said, stopping himself when a kid in front of him asked him a question. “Good question. There is internet here, some of the best that I know of. If you decide to buy anything, there’s an address you’re to send it to. The store in the town, actually. Which I should tell you about…” he grinned, “there’s a little town made up of mostly graduates from here. There’s a bakery, a grocery store and a small clothing store. I’d understand why you’d want to buy some stuff online. There’s not much in that town, but it’s nice enough. Let’s see… Uhmmmm…” he seemed unsure how to continue. After another kid seemed to ask him a question, he seemed more determined to answer his question. “Me? I’m Burnie. I graduated from here, back when the classes were named after countries. That was before half the main building caught on fire due to a spell misfire. But I was like you all, though that was before the “fill out applications” stuff came about for the school. I was thrown into the pack of wolves by someone who only knew me from my grades, though I wouldn’t say this was a mistake. I was in what was then called Germany, which is now just the physical class. And before you ask, the magic class was France and the weapons class was the UK,” Burnie toyed around with the cord of the microphone, thinking about what next to tell about the school. “Well, I guess after this, you’ll all go find your dorm rooms. Don’t worry; your stuff should be there. If it isn’t, go either to your classroom and ask your teacher or come find me. I’ll be in the main building… Somewhere,” he grinned, leaving where he had been standing to talk to some of the students.

                “Well, let’s see where we are,” Ray said, pulling out his paper. It said Building 2, Room 145. “Well, I doubt we’re in the same room. That’d be weird.”

                Laughing with Ray, Michael did the same, unfolding the wadded piece of paper. It read Building 3, Room 103. “Damn. Well, it shouldn’t be too hard to stay in contact. We’re what? Five minutes away from each other? At most?”

                “Shouldn’t be too hard. Let’s go check it out,” Ray said, stuffing the remains of his food into the slice of bread that came with it and shoving it in one of his pockets. The two left the mess hall, hoping to not eat that food again.               

* * *

 

The two decided Building 2 would be closer to the mess hall and were deeply mistaken. Building 2 was not near the mess hall, but instead was on the opposite side of the main building from the mess hall. Building 3 stood in front of the main building, between the mess hall and Building 2.

                “Glad we’re gonna get the exercise,” Ray said, out of breath at the door.

                “Definitely,” Michael replied sarcastically.

                The two headed towards where they guess room 145 would be located, away from the door they entered. The rooms they past were all open and colored one of three different colors: White, beige, and pale yellow. The whole building was in a circle, similar to the main building. Ray’s room was one of the white rooms and already held the person he was expected to work with best, a girl that was shorter than Michael with long blonde hair. She smiled at the two, but continued to unpack the contents of her bag onto the bed she’d chosen, claiming the left side of the room for herself.

                “Well Michael. I wish you good luck finding your room. I’ll see you around,” Ray said, heading towards the bed left for him and grabbed one of the two bags on the floor near there. Michael seemed to get that Ray wanted to meet his roommate for the next four years.

                Michael’s trek to Building 3 was uneventful; though the kids talking across the hallways would all get quiet as he past, acting as though they didn’t want to let him in on a secret.

                Room 103 was a significantly different room than any of the others. The room looked as though it was supposed to be two rooms rather than one, but that might have explained the missing Room 101. The room also wasn’t one of the three colors the other rooms were. Instead, it was a dark navy blue. Michael noticed one other thing but before he could put two and two together about it, his attention was drawn to the taller, heavier built boy behind him.

                “Excuse me, but do you know where I can find the stairs. I’m in room 201 and can’t seem to find my way to get up there,” he asked, behaving awkwardly. Michael thought he’d be alright to have above his room.

                “The last door before you turn right is the stairs, I think. If it isn’t, it’s down there somewhere,” Michael pointed towards the end of the hallway. “If you don’t mind me asking, though, what’s your name? In case I need something, that is. Your room is right above mine so I thought-“

                “Ryan. I’m Ryan Haywood,” Ryan stuck his hand out for a handshake but took it back when Michael stared blankly at it for a few moments. “I’ll be seeing you then,” and with that, Ryan headed down the hall towards where Michael hoped the stairs were.

                Michael walked into the room, seeing a similar setup to what had been in Ray’s room, only more spread out, seeing as his room was quite honestly far too big for two people. There was a closet on the left side of the room and a mini-fridge with a bit of counter space on the right side of the room. Each bed had a bedside table with an old desk lamp on it. The rest of the room was bare, waiting for the inhabitants to decorate it. Michael also noticed that in his room there was only one set of luggage; his own. Michael realized then what he thought nothing of before. The kid that didn’t show up to his class was supposed to be his partner, his roommate, and his friend. Michael sat on the bed, looking across to the empty bed across the room.

“Well fuck, guess I’m gonna be alone here too.”


	2. Birth

                Michael spent his first night in the dark room trying to add something to it. The room was too big for him alone and he wanted nothing more than to fill the room with something. Unable to come up with anything, he pulled up YouTube on his laptop and placed it on the other bed, listening to the music videos and comedy videos he chose while unpacking. He felt like he should leave half of the closet empty, almost as though he had a roommate to take up the other half. About two hours after he began unpacking and arranging the room as he saw fit, a man who appeared about Geoff and Burnie’s age though somewhat scruffier than the two came by, dropping off two keys. Michael also felt he should place the extra key on the nightstand; somewhere it wouldn’t get lost. At about eleven at night, Michael gave up trying to entertain himself and decided sleeping was the better option. 

* * *

 

Michael woke to the sun rising through the two windows in his room. The clock on his phone said that it was only six but Michael felt that rather than prolong his time alone in his room, he might as well just get up and get ready for his first day of class.

                Michael headed across the quiet hall to room 106. The room held one of the hall’s three bathrooms and was the one most convenient for Michael. In the room, he spotted several of his classmates, each of which seemed unsure of what to do after getting ready for class. Michael minded his own business, brushing his teeth and washing his face. He decided the best thing to do until he was given an opportunity to go to that store Burnie mentioned yesterday was to go to the mess hall and see what was being served there. 

* * *

 

After being served a disappointing breakfast burrito filled with egg substitute and maybe some kind of meat, Michael headed to room 3, one he assumed would be where he spent more time than anywhere else in his new temporary home. When he got there though, he was met with not classmates or Geoff, but a girl probably shorter than Ray’s roommate, a lanky boy about as tall as Ryan, and another lanky, shorter boy. The girl had silver hair with brownish red roots that reached to her mid-back. She wore shorts that just barely reached the middle of her thighs and had a harness around her right thigh that held a stick no bigger than a flashlight. The taller lanky boy had dark brown hair that was tied back into a tight, small ponytail and untied probably didn’t meet his shoulders. He was dressed casually but had a concealed pistol holster on his hip. The shorter lanky boy had dirty blonde hair and a noticeably large nose. He dressed casually as well, but Michael couldn’t make out anything that would reveal he was trained to use weapons like the other two.

                The girl was the first to notice Michael, walking over to him while the boys continued talking and asked him quietly, “Do you know who has room 103 in Building 3? This poor kid got here early this morning and couldn’t get into his room because it was locked…” She looked towards the shorter of the boys, concern filling her bright green eyes.

                “I’m in room 103.”

                “Really?!” she said loudly, getting the attention of the other two. “Natie, he has the room!”

                “Natie” elbowed the shorter boy, “See? All you had to do was wait a little bit for your roommate to come,” he smiled encouragingly at the shorter of the two, his maroon eyes examining Michael.

                The shorter didn’t say anything but nodded to Natie. Michael walked up to him, handing him the key to the room, “I’ll take you to it. Your key is on the nightstand next to the other bed,” and the two left Natie and the girl in the room.

                “So. You’re the no show.”

                “Didn’t mean for that ta happen. My flight got delayed,” the boy said with an English accent. Michael inwardly cringed at how ridiculous the guy sounded.

                “Nobody else got delayed.”

                “Nobody else was flying out of London in a thunderstorm.”

                “London? Really? I thought Burnie said it’s only gonna be American students here.”

                “It’s supposed ta be. My school didn’t accept me though and Mr. Burns felt that rather than let some other country take me that I should come here,” he seemed a little deflated revealing his home country not wanting him, but hey, Michael thought that because Burnie said he’d be coming here instead, Michael’d have a partner now. No matter how annoying he sounded.

                As they approached the building, Michael smirked at how the windows to their room were the closest to them. “And this is Building 3. From what I’ve heard, this building is the smallest of the two dorm buildings. This holds the physical class and the weapons class students. It also can hold any overflow from Building 2, but I’m not sure if there is any…” Michael opened the door leading to the hallway. The hallway was full of hustle and bustle from the rest of Michael and he guessed his roommate’s new classmates. When the door opened and the other boy walked through, though, the hallway became quiet. The class was unsure of who the kid was, but believed that he might just be from a different class. After a moment, they went back to their morning rituals and Michael led the boy to their room. The boy stared expectantly at Michael to open the door before Michael started talking again, “What are you doing?”

                “Waiting for you to open the door.”

                “You have the fucking key, dipshit!” Michael shouted at him.

                “I do?” he looked at Michael as though Michael had grown another head.

                “I gave it to you before we left! Did you fucking lose it?!” Michael was beginning to get angry at the British boy.

                The kid searched his pockets before pulling out a single key, seeming shocked to find anything at all. “Oh! I do have it!”

                “You’re a fucking idiot.”

                The door opened to the large room and the kid seemed happy to finally see his room. Michael’s laptop was still sitting on the left-side bed, but otherwise the kid’s side was untouched.

                “Yours?”

                “Yeah,” Michael took his laptop and placed it in one of his side table’s drawers. “Mind if I get your name?”

                “Gavin. Yours?”

                “Michael.”

                “Where’re you from?”

                “Jersey.”

                “Cool,” Gavin tossed Michael’s key back to him, though he missed terribly and ended up hitting the wall above Michael’s bed.

                “Well, none of your crap is here so I’m gonna guess it’s in the classroom.”

                “You’d be wrong. Some guy took it, saying he’d bring it here later.”

                “Who was in there? I mean, I caught there was one person named Natie but…”

                “That bloke’s name is Nathan. The girl is Andrew Marie.”

                “Dude, do you know about her?” Michael’s eyes widened.

                “That she’s short?” Gavin looked confused.

                “She cut the last teacher in half! Then we got Geoff,” Michael was shocked, really, but also seemed to understand how he hadn’t known. It’s not like she’d say “Hi, my name’s Andrew Marie and I cut my old teacher in half! What’s your name?” It just didn’t happen like that.

                “Really? Hmm.”

                When Gavin became more interested in their room, Michael decided to check his phone, seeing if he had any messages. When he took notice of the lack of service though, he really shouldn’t have been surprised. He had no idea where he was and it seemed all his phone could lend him was what time zone he was in.

                “Hey Gav, do you know where we are?” Michael asked, trying to remember the name of the time zone.

                “I think I caught the name of the town… Heartline, I think…”

                “Never heard of it… Let’s Google it,” Michael joked. He noticed that it seemed pretty quiet outside in the hall. “Don’t fucking tell me we’re gonna be late for the first day.”

                “To be honest, I’m already late getting to this gaff,” Gavin grinned, heading towards the door.

                Following him, Michael thought aloud, “The fuck is a gaff?” 

* * *

 

The two weren’t the last to class, but Geoff didn’t seem too happy that they were running as late as they were.

                Once everyone had arrived, Geoff had returned from the closet holding various objects. “Welcome to the weapons-class-that-needs-a-better-name. That’ll be what we do this Saturday. Rather than teach English, we shall decide on a name for the class. Anyway, we have some assistants for this class since apparently, we’re sending too many people out and now have too many graduates not doing jack. So, we’ve offered them jobs helping classes. So, I’d like to introduce Andrew Marie and Nathan who will be helping me teach you how to use the weapon of your choice,” Geoff motioned towards the stairs where the two came from.

                “Hello, I’m Andrew Marie and this is my partner Nathan. We’re looking forward to working with you guys,” she smiled widely; Michael took note that she had brightly colored braces. “We’ll be helping more with the outside of combat aspect of fighting, such as armor, medical care, and some other techniques, such as magic and physical combat.”

                “Why do we need to know magic?” one of the students shouted out, “We didn’t sign up for that class-“ a loud bang echoed through the room. Nathan fired his pistol through Andrew’s side and she collapsed, blood pooling around her.

                “Because, let’s say,” Nathan knelt down next to her, a sparkly film forming around his hand as he placed his hand on the gunshot wound, “your partner has been shot for whatever reason. The basic medical care we’ll be teaching you about isn’t gonna do much about this blood loss or the injury itself. What’re you gonna do? Let your partner die? Sorry, this person tends to end up being one of the most important people you’ll know and almost nobody goes back onto the field capable of fighting alone. So what’ll you do?”

                “You have to make do with what you know. We want as many of you as we can get for as long as we can have you. Which is why we’ll be teaching you more defensive and medical focused spells,” Andrew said, sitting up. There was no blood on her or on the floor. “The fact that we’re also going to teach you how to fight physically is so that in case you’re in a situation where you can’t use your weapon,” she unlatched the harness on her thigh and gave the baton to Nathan, “you can still defend yourself and fight back.”

                “But there’s still the fact that you need to find out what weapon works for you. For some of you, maybe a gun will work for you, like Nathan. For others, maybe a sword or other type of blade, like Andrew. Which, if you’d follow me, you’ll be able to see all of your options,” Geoff grinned, leading the way into the closet.

                Inside, Michael discovered that it wasn’t a closet, per se, but instead a store room for virtually every weapon imaginable. Swords, maces, battle axes, scythes, guns of all sizes and capabilities, bows, and anything else thinkable.

                “How do we choose?” one of the girls asked, touching the handle of one of the kinds of swords.

                “Easy. Starting Wednesday, you’ll get to choose any of these weapons and try them out, dueling against your partner with their weapons.”

                “Before you ask, all the guns have been modified to use both their normal caliber bullets and paintball bullets, designed by yours truly,” Nathan proudly stated.

                “What about the bows?” Gavin asked, his eyes bright.

                “We have blunted arrows,” Andrew answered. “Every weapon has been modified slightly to where we can’t… Well, cut our teachers in half… Heh.”

                “We learn as we go. The only things that haven’t really been modified are the things that really nobody has taken a hankering to, like morning stars. Yeah, nobody’s used those…” Geoff laughed.

                “So everything here is safe, more or less,” Michael said, his attention on a great sword.

                “You’re capable of doing blunt damage, but yeah, safe,” Geoff said. “So back to how you’ll try out weapons. To keep track of what you’ve tried, we have a poorly made chart with the number of where these are stored. You put your initials on the day you use it.”

                “So let’s get started,” Andrew said, grinning. 

* * *

 

When noon hit, nobody noticed; all too interested in what Geoff, Nathan, and Andrew were demonstrating and explaining. When six hit, though, everyone noticed. The hunger throughout the teenagers had become overbearing for any of them to continue paying attention.

                “Geeeeoffffff. We’re hungryyyyy,” Michael and Gavin complained simultaneously, neither caring too much.

                Geoff looked at the clock above the door, “Oh. I guess it’s late. Well, before I let you go, you need to all be here by eight thirty, at the latest. I’ll see you Wednesday. Oh, Gavin, I’d like to talk to you,” as the rest of the class began leaving, Gavin headed to the front of the room.

                “You were late getting here.”

                “My plane was late.”

                “You find your partner?”

                “His name’s Michael.”

                “He seems a bit violent. Think you can handle him? It’s not too late to move you to another room.”

                “I think it’ll be alright,” and Gavin headed out of the room, hoping maybe Michael waited for him. He wasn’t too surprised when he didn’t find Michael outside the classroom. He was surprised when he found Michael outside the building though. He found Michael talking to a kid about the same height as himself.

                “Hey, Ray, this is Gavin. Gavin, this is Ray,” Michael introduced.

                “Hey dude. You Michael’s roommate?”

                “Yeah.”

                “Cool. Hope I’ll get to see you around,” Ray headed the opposite direction of where Michael was leading Gavin.

                “Where’s he going?” Gavin asked.

                “His room. He thinks his roommate’s adorable and needs to know anything and everything he can about her. It’s fucking creepy.”

                “Is Ray an old friend?”

                “Hell no. I met him yesterday at the airport.”

                “Ohhhh,” the two arrived at the mess hall, only to be disappointed at the smell coming from the serving station. Gavin visibly gagged.

                “I wouldn’t say it’s that bad, but it is kinda gross.”

                “Okay…”

                The mess hall cooks seemed to believe it was burrito day, seeing how they had the relative to Michael’s breakfast burrito. Neither could tell what was in the burrito, just that there may have been some kind of cheese, refried beans, and maybe some kind of meat. Michael could tell he wouldn’t look forward to trying to make food with Gavin, seeing him continue to gag while he tried eating the mush.

                “Come on, it’s not that bad. It’s gross, sure, but not inedible.”

                “Are you bonkers? It’s absolutely foul,” Gavin exclaimed, giving up on his burrito.

                “Eh. And anyway, you missed the announcement last night, we’ll get to make our own food once we’re allowed into town.”

                “We aren’t? Why not?”

                “I think it’s cuz we don’t know how to get there.”

                “Oh,” Michael rolled his eyes at Gavin. Michael finished his burrito and led the way back to Building 3. When they arrived at room 103, there were several bags piled on each other outside the door.

                “Looks like your shit’s arrived.”

                “My stuff!”

                “Really? I thought it was Ryan’s.”

                “Ryan?”

                “His room’s above ours,” Michael said, unlocking the door and heading in, his bed looking far more comfortable than the folding chairs in their classroom. He laid on his bed, wrapping himself in a blanket he’d brought.

                “I wanna meet the other mates here,” Gavin said as Michael was beginning to feel somewhat drowsy.

                “Why,” Michael more said than asked, not wanting to move from where he was.

                “Cos if we’re gonna live by each other for all this time, why not know their names and where to find them. In case something bad happens or something.”

                “Go ahead. I’ll be right here.”

                “But Micool.”

                Michael sat up, glaring at Gavin, “What did you call me?”

                “Micool.”

                “No. No no no. I’m Michael, not _Micool_ or some shit.”

                “Well now that you’re up, let’s go meet the neighbors!” Gavin clapped his hands together in front of his chest, grinning happily.

                “You little shit,” Michael shouted at Gavin, climbing off of his bed frustratedly. Gavin walked out of the room, happily leading the way to their across-the-hall neighbors in room 102. 

* * *

 

After spending about an hour and a half wandering the halls of the first floor, the bickering duo made their way to the second floor, starting at room 250 and worked their way down. The second floor took about half as much time but at least the kids all agreed that it’d be good to at least know somebody, for the time being, that they could ask for help if anything arose. Everyone they met agreed, though, that as time went on they’d probably go for the friends they’d made in class before they’d go to the two boys, but thanked them for the trouble.

                The two reached the final room in their journey, room 201. Michael quit sulking about being dragged into these introductions and decided to knock on the door instead of Gavin.

                “Glad you got the stick outta your arse,” Gavin grinned as they waited for someone to answer the door. What they were greeted with wasn’t what they were really expecting.

                Instead of the Ryan Michael had met the day before, Michael thought Ryan had undergone some crazy make-over. The boy standing in the doorway was most definitely older than them, but couldn’t have been considerably older. He had red hair and a matching beard, was heavier set and stood eye to eye with Gavin.

                “Can I help you?” the boy asked.

                “Hi, I’m Gavin and this is Michael and we live in this dorm with you. We wanted to introduce ourselves to everyone and let them know that they can talk to us whenever they want to, including you and your mate,” Gavin said without missing a beat.

                “Glad to meet you Gavin,” the boy said, trying to close the door.

                “Hey! Michael, right?” Ryan said, coming up behind the red head, preventing him from closing the door.

                “Hey Ryan. My roommate decided that it was necessary to meet everyone in the building,” Michael told Ryan, ignoring Ryan’s roommate.

                “Well, I didn’t expect to see you around so soon. It’s good to meet you… Uh…”

                “Gavin.”

                “Gavin! It’s good to meet you Gavin,” Ryan shook Gavin’s hand. “Michael and Gavin, I’d like you to meet my roommate Jack. Jack, these boys are in the room below us, so if they’re too ridiculous, we should just break the floor and throw all of our belongings at them,” Ryan smiled deviously.

                “What,” Michael responded, seeming shocked to see this side of Ryan.

                “Please don’t do that, Ryan. I mean, we can’t do anything that bad, right?” Gavin said nervously.

                “Try me,” Ryan replied, Jack’s expression becoming one of worry. “I hope we’ll be seeing you around,” Ryan said smiling, moving away from the door, allowing Jack to close the door.

                “I’d say he’s joking, but I can’t really tell,” Jack said apologetically before closing the door.

                “What just-“

                “I don’t even know, Gavin. I’m tired and slightly scared to do anything more today,” Michael said, heading towards the end of the hall where one of the sets of stairs was.

                “Micool! Don’t just leave me here!” Gavin said, chasing after him. These four years were gonna be long ones.


	3. Kiss with a Fist

                For as loud as Gavin was when he was awake, he was quite the quiet, motionless sleeper. When Michael woke up the Tuesday after their first lesson, he genuinely thought Gavin had up and died in his sleep, only to be proven wrong when he returned from his shit-tastic breakfast of wallpaper paste and dry bread under the alias of biscuits and gravy. Gavin was bouncing around the room looking at anything and everything in the room, almost like he was memorizing where everything was, except for the fact that if he found something he could easily pick up, he would and then he’d proceed to place it somewhere different from where it was previously.

                Michael approached Gavin while he was thoroughly inspecting Michael’s glasses, “Stop. Stop,” he took his glasses from Gavin, looking through the now fingerprint covered lenses.

                “Micool, what are we supposed to do now? We have nothing here!”

                “Go eat something. Then take all your shit from your bags and put it away. Explore the grounds. There’s plenty to do,” Michael said while cleaning the fingerprints off.

                “But Micool, it’s gross.”

                “Didn’t I tell you not to call me that? Mike-ll. Not My-cool.”

                “But Micool,” Gavin said, sounding frustrated.

                “Go eat. Here, I’ll go with you so you don’t get lost,” Michael said, dragging Gavin out the door.

* * *

Almost all of Building 3’s inhabitants were in the mess hall that morning, Michael discovering he’d missed the morning rush. Along with the entire dorm was Burnie, standing where he had on the first day.

                “I’d like to announce that starting today, you guys are allowed to go to the town to buy food and all the other good stuff. Throughout the day, you guys will be shown how to get to town and what sells what. When your guides arrive and are ready to lead you to town, they’ll give you about a hundred and fifty dollars today, just so you can stock up on food and maybe get some other things… I guess that’s all for you guys,” Burnie smiled, leaving his small platform and looking sympathetically at all the students. Apparently, Burnie also knew about the wallpaper-paste.

                “We can leave! We don’t have to eat this…. Stuff!” Gavin seemed pretty happy about the most recent development in his life. Michael wondered what else could make him act that way. Probably most things.

                “I already know you won’t eat this shit. Wanna go?”

                “Yeah! Micool, this is gonna be tippity toppers,” Gavin said, hopping up from his spot. Michael hoped that “tippity toppers” would not become a thing.       

* * *

Outside the mess hall, a group of about ten students were gathered around a tall and confused looking man with dark hair. The group was also surrounding what looked to be motor vehicles of some sort.

                “Are there any more heading over here for the first group of travelers?” the man said, seeming slightly impatient at the fact that he couldn’t be doing something else.

                “Come on, move along. We need two people on each ATV. Come on!” Andrew Marie said, voice booming over the others. Michael and Gavin rushed closer to the vehicles and were assigned to a green one for this trip. On each vehicle, there were two pouches that had three fifty dollar bills in them. Michael recognized them as being very similar to the rupee pouches in Zelda games.

                “Alright. Every ATV has a button that’ll start it up. No key, no fancy device that’ll start it up as soon as you get near it. Just a simple button. It’s an automatic so no gear changes. Brake is on the right. It’s on the little platform for your foot. To go, use the handle bars. It’s like a motorcycle,” the man said, getting on his own.

                Andrew stood on the back of his ATV, grinning, “So let’s start em up.”

                All around them, the ATVs were starting, engines revving before quieting down.

                “Alright guys, we’re gonna lead the way. Your first test is going to be if you can get to town following us and get back on your own,” Andrew shouted before sitting on the cargo carrier on the back of the ATV, holding the bars.

                Michael quickly started his up and started moving, ending up right behind Andrew and the man. He pulled up next to them when they slowed down to not lose any of the teenagers.

                Gavin shouted over the engines, “Who’s that guy?”

                The man shouted back, “I’m Joel. I’m working with the magicky kids.” He looked over briefly and grinned, only to have a bug fly straight into his teeth. He tried repeatedly to spit the corpse out from between his teeth, causing the ATV to swerve slightly. Andrew tapped his shoulder to get his attention back on what he was doing and Andrew and Joel sped up, forcing Michael to follow behind them, creating a line of ATVs heading towards town.

                The trip took about fifteen minutes in total, with Andrew and Joel stopping every once in a while to let everyone get caught up. When they reached the small town, it was just that: small. There was a small grocery store for the inhabitants of both the school and the town, a small clothing store that also sold some simple furniture, and a gas station half dedicated to selling gas, the other half dedicated to baking. It was very much a roadside town.

                “Alright guys. This is where we stop guiding you. You can go anywhere you want now. If you get lost outside of town, that’s your own fault and we will never let you live with that; tormenting you with that knowledge,” Joel said, Andrew scooting off the cargo carrier as he turned his ATV around, heading back in the direction they came from.

                Michael drove the ATV over towards the store and parked it next to the outdoor ice chest. “Let’s see what’s in here,” he said, leading the way into the store.

                For the amount of space the store had, it was used well. Tall aisles packed full of everything they could fit with enough space for two people to stand shoulder to shoulder between them. There were ten aisles in total, aisles nine and ten slightly shorter than the others. The back of the store had freezers for refrigerated and frozen goods and behind aisles nine and ten was a small add-on, housing two barbers’ chairs. Gavin began wandering through the aisles, searching for things he liked. Behind the counter stood a familiar brown haired boy but rather than the attire he wore the day before, he wore shorts and a t-shirt, covered by a black apron that read the name of the store, “Convergence Goods.” Michael walked over to Nathan, leaving Gavin to his own devices.

                “So not only are you teaching, but you’re a cashier too? Man, you must be living the high life,” Michael joked as he walked towards Nathan, the tall boy grinning.

                “It’s so we have something to do on your days off. Andrew and Joel work here too, along with the owners,” Nathan informed Michael. “So, you looking for anything specific or just gonna find what you can work with?”

                “Whatever we can find.”

                “I think you should know, on Thursdays and Sundays, we get shipments of fresh stuff, so you might wanna come in those days. When they’re in season, they melons they bring are killer. Like, literally, they come with knives and often threaten to kill the staff. We have to sedate them before putting them up for sale,” Nathan said, poker face wavering when saying they had knives. When Michael didn’t react, Nathan began snickering. “Grab a basket and get stocked up,” he said between giggles.

                Michael grabbed two baskets and went to give one to Gavin. When Michael found Gavin, he had gathered several random canned foods. “Put it in the basket and keep looking,” Michael said, giving Gavin the basket before going to a different section of the store.

                Twenty minutes after entering the store, the two went to the counter to pay for their goods. “This everything?” Nathan asked before he started scanning items

                “Yep,” Gavin said definitively.

                “Alrighty then,” Nathan said, scanning several items before putting them in a cloth bag.

                After a few moments, Michael asked, “What’s the name of the town?”

                “Convergence. Makes sense since the town is on a state line,” Nathan grinned, continuing to put their items in the cloth bag.

                “What the closest town to Convergence?” Gavin asked.

                “Dunno. We’ve stopped paying much attention to the towns we drive through. We have the Northern state memorized so we don’t really need to know the town names, just how far apart they are. Andrew and I were enrolled in the same high school before being chosen to come here,” Nathan said, handing Michael they cloth bag. The bag was tied off, preventing any of the items from falling out. “I know how you guys got here. The regular bags we’d use just won’t cut it for the trip through the trees. I know, I’ve lost my fair share of food in there,” he smiled sheepishly, handing Gavin another cloth bag that had less in it, but had some of the more fragile items, like eggs. “I recommend going next door to the clothing store. You can get all kinds of things there and trust me, you may think you don’t want anything, but you will. You will want all of the pillows,” he said jokingly, waving them away from the counter to take care of another pair of kids.

                “Wanna check it out?” Michael asked Gavin, taking the bag from him.

                “Yeah. I mean, why not see what they’ve got,” Gavin said to Michael as he walked towards the building.

                Similarly to the grocery store next door, the clothing shop used the space it had as efficiently as next door. About half of the store was dedicated to clothing and the other half was furniture. Nothing they sold was very fancy but nothing was of cheap quality. All the furniture was built to be sturdy, most likely so the teenagers would be able to get it back to the school and it would still be good to go.

                “Hello young men!” the storekeeper said as the two entered. “If you need any help with anything, just give me a holler,” the woman said. She was about the same height as Andrew and had the same silvery hair. Michael would’ve said the two were twins, but the silver hair came from age and stress rather than dye.

                “Thanks,” Michael said as Gavin wandered through the racks of clothing. It seemed like a good balance between used and new, most of it probably coming from stores that couldn’t sell it. Michael left Gavin to his clothing search and instead looked at the furniture. A good portion of it looked like it had been hand-made; none of the pieces looked as similar as factory-built ones would. Michael spotted a low-to-the-ground table and thought that it’d be a good thing to take to the room. _It’d make the room look more homely, I guess._

                “Micool! Look!” Gavin caught Michael’s attention. He walked over to him holding two large blobs of fabric.

                “We don’t need sacks,” Michael turned back to the table, mentally trying to figure out how to get it back to the room. He figured he could just leave Gavin and get the table, maybe even trade one for the other.

                “They aren’t sacks, you doop. They’re bean bags!” Gavin showed Michael.

                “You buy them then,” Michael grabbed the little tag on the table to take to the counter.

                “We don’t need a table, Micool.”

                “We do if we’re eating in the damn room,” Michael said, approaching the counter.

                “Boys, I’ve had those pillow things for years; I’m pretty sure those kids working at the store saw them one of their trips here. Take them, I don’t need them,” the woman said, waving Gavin away from the counter. Gavin grinned happily, obviously not expecting to get them for free. “Let me see that tag,” she said, grabbing the tag from Michael’s hand. “Ah, I see why you might want that. I’ll give you a student discount since you boys are probably from the school… I went there many years ago. And the skills I learned there have followed me to this day. Magic isn’t something the real world really wants to know about. It’s too different and strange for normal people to accept. What’re you two learning? Wait, wait. I bet I could tell you,” she looked closely at Michael, then at Gavin, who had started going towards the table Michael was buying. “At least one of you is taking Weapons. Maybe both of you. You definitely look like you’d be able to swing a sword. Your friend there-“

                “Roommate,” Michael said.

                “Roommate? Hmm, I could’ve sworn you two were friends. Well, your roommate there seems like he’d be either a magic user like myself or maybe a ranged weapon. He doesn’t look like he’d want to be face to face in the action,” she smiled at Michael, showing him the amount he owed her. Nothing he couldn’t pay, though he was breaking into some of the money he’d brought from home. She quietly told him how to assemble and disassemble the piece of furniture before letting him loose.

                Michael had rounded up Gavin before the woman called to him, “Young man! Come here a minute!”

                Michael walked towards her, “I know how to take the table apart, you just told me.” Michael dragged Gavin with him, the brit squawking at the action.

                “Not that, boy. I want to let you in on a secret. Something’s brewing in the town over and I want you two to be safe. Stay together, or with friends and don’t wander out of town. Something’s definitely up,” she whispered. “I can’t help fight it, but I can let you know. Be careful. And anyway, I think the girl and her husband know already. They’ll probably help your class get prepared,” she said before waving them off to take apart the table.

                _Something’s up,_ Michael thought, _what kind of store owner just up and tells some strange kids that some shit’s gonna go down._ Michael stood in front of the table, not making any progress in taking it apart.

                “What are you doing?” Gavin asked from his spot on the floor. He had begun taking the not-as-tight-as-they’re-intended-to-be screws out of the table, piling them up on the floor next to him.

                Michael sat on the opposite side of the table from Gavin and began doing the same as him. When they had removed a good portion of the screws from the table, Michael whispered, “I’m confused as to why someone would tell some kids they just met that shits about to go down.”

                “It’s probably just a thing to scare us. Don’t worry about it Micool,” Gavin said, getting up and grabbing his screws from the floor. He walked over to the store owner, asking her for a baggie to “put the gubbins in.” Michael wished that Gavin would speak English. 

* * *

The two were easily comparable to a weasel and duck trying to drive an All-Terrain Vehicle with a table with no legs, two bean bag chairs, and food attached. Michael understood that there’d be no way in hell they’d be able to get all the stuff back without some tie-downs. Thankfully, Nathan was more than willing to lend them his and Andrew’s for the trip, as long as he got them back the next day during class. Even with the tie-downs, though, the two were quite the sight to see. The weasel, Michael, could easily enough drive the ATV, the only thing really making him comparable to a weasel being the hissing noises he was making, rather than speaking. The duck, Gavin, on the other hand, resembled said animal far more, seeing as the boy was flapping his arms around periodically and squawking most of the ride back, only quieting after hearing Michael hiss and laughing before he’d start squawking and waving his arms again. 

* * *

 

The rest of the day wasn’t much better for Michael. Gavin only continued to show how useless he was by being unable to find a screwdriver to reassemble their newly bought table and by continuing to touch Michael’s things. After returning with “the only screwdriver on campus,” Gavin decided to finally unpack. Michael wished that things would get better with Gavin.


	4. Lover of the Light

                After two months, the Weapons class had been making steady progress. Each duo had been steadily improving on getting along and what weapons they preferred. A majority of the class had ended up choosing a gun of some sort, but there were the occasional blade and others chosen. Michael had chosen the great sword he’d been eyeing before; the sword was a regular steel sword but the edges were lined with diamonds, promising serious injury to those who challenged him (though he hadn’t actually gotten to use the diamond edged one. It was considered too dangerous to train with.) Gavin had decided he liked the ranged weapons more, though he was still debating between throwing knives and a bow.

                As promised, though later than they hoped, the Weapons class spent the past Saturday trying to come up with a better name for their class.

                Geoff decided the best way to try getting them to think creatively was to tell them the names of the other classes. Apparently, according to his group of students, “Yolo” and “Bty” were exceptionally stupid names and “why would the other two classes think that those names were even remotely cool enough to be names for classes.”

                From an unexpected source, though, came their name. After Nathan mentioned how for the longest time the classes were named after countries, Gavin offered his little bit of knowledge.

                “How about Babel?”

                “Like the Tower of Babel from the bible?” Andrew asked, her knowledge of the book more than she liked.

                “Mmhmm. An old friend of mine told me Babel in Hebrew means ‘to confuse or confound’,” Gavin had smiled to himself, this being a huge stride towards advancing his self-confidence meter after arriving in this foreign land. Throughout the classroom, the students all seemed to like this idea.

                On the whiteboard in front of the classroom, Geoff wrote in large letters the word “BABEL”. “Okay, seeing from your reaction to the suggestion, I’m gonna say our class has gone from Weapons to Babel? All in favor, say I,” he said, raising his right hand. The majority of the class, including Andrew, Nathan, and Michael repeated I.

                At 2:30 that Saturday afternoon, Geoff announced, “Class dismissed.” 

* * *

The following Sunday was nothing out of the ordinary. On days when there wasn’t school, Gavin typically woke up before Michael and would wander the school and do other things, coming back to the room a few hours later and waiting for Michael to get up and make pancakes or go into town to get food. So when Michael woke up, he wasn’t very surprised when Gavin wasn’t in the room.

                At around eleven that morning, Michael decided to go look around and maybe go see what was holding Gavin up. Michael spent the better part of two hours looking around the campus partially for his own enjoyment, partially looking for Gavin.

                Michael would be lying if he wasn’t starting to get worried when the Bty class was dismissed and there was still no sign of Gavin. When Michael saw Jack and Ryan, he began walking towards the duo.

                “Have either of you seen Gavin?” Michael asked, already knowing the answer.

                “No, why?” Ryan replied, glancing around to see if he could spot him around the edges of the trees.

                “Fuck. I haven’t seen him all day…” Michael thought maybe he should ask for their help but decided against it. “If you guys see him, give me a holler.”

                “Good luck finding him,” Jack wished him farewell, leading a distracted Ryan back towards their dorm.

                “We’ll tell the others to keep an eye out,” Ryan shouted before Michael started jogging towards the building they had just left. Michael entered in a rush, moving hurriedly through the Bty students that were milling around, frantically looking through the crowd to see if he could spot the large nosed dunce.

                When the crowd search turned futile, he went to Room 3, seeing if maybe the boy was in there. To his dismay, he found Andrew and Nathan working on their latest project; sewing everyone’s armor. The two were finishing up the first set; a set of armor for two of the girls in their class, Amanda and Jennifer. The pair had few answers for him, but suggested he look in the woods surrounding the school, he might find something unexpected.

                After leaving the main building, he figured he better take some supplies, not knowing what he may or may not find in the darkening forest. His detour to his room lasted no longer than ten minutes and ended up with Michael wearing a jacket with the design of an NES controller on it, a plain green jacket wrapped around his waist for Gavin, and a flashlight to lead the way. The sun was setting by the time Michael entered the tree line, the trees instantly darkening the area they occupied.

                When it became even more difficult to see around him, Michael began shouting, “Gavin! Where the fuck are you?” Michael kept shouting, and over time, he began shouting different nicknames for Gavin, trying to get a response. It was slowly getting darker and darker and soon enough, Michael’s flashlight became his only source of comfort in the darkness. His shouts began to betray him, becoming more high pitched with fear and concern. Over the couple of months the two had known each other, Michael had taken a liking to the awkward teen and would openly admit he enjoyed the other’s company, no matter how annoying it was.

                Michael’s shouts stopped abruptly when he came across a brightly lit area. He sauntered over towards the bright area, finding the light to be the reflection of the sliver of the moon on a wide lake. Michael shouted across the lake, his voice trembling, “Gavvers! Where’d you go?!”

                A faint reply came from the other side of the lake, “Micool!”

                At the sound of Gavin’s stupid accent and his stupid way of saying Michael, Michael began sprinting to the other side of the lake, continuing to shout to Gavin. Michael understood why Gavin had been gone so long when he approached the sitting boy. Gavin was in his usual attire of t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers and was visibly shivering, his lips turning blue. He had one shoe and sock to the side, his right foot in the water of the lake. Michael shined his flashlight on Gavin’s foot. He could see that his ankle was swollen and when Michael looked at Gavin’s face, he had some scrapes on his forehead and a small cut on his nose.

                “I uh… I can’t walk. I wedged my foot in a tree and fell on my nose…” Gavin said sheepishly, his hand scratching the back of his neck and his teeth chattering after he finished talking.

                Michael unwrapped the green jacket from his waist and handed it to him, squatting down next to him while he put it on. Michael grabbed Gavin’s shoe and stuffed the sock into it before handing the shoe back to Gavin.

                “When’d you know I was gone?”

                “When I woke up. When you didn’t come back, I started looking for you. Andrew and Nathan said I should look in the forest. Come on, let’s go,” Michael mumbled, turning his back towards Gavin.

                “Micool, ‘m all gamy.”

                “I know,” Michael said, his hands emphasizing the cradle he was making behind his back and motioning for Gavin to get on. Gavin obliged, awkwardly climbing onto Michael’s back and being careful of his ankle. Michael stayed squatting, nodding towards the flashlight and Gavin’s shoe. “Carry that,” Michael ordered, Gavin obeying.

                As they walked, Michael was tense and holding onto Gavin for dear life, making sure he had a definite hold of him. After walking a few minutes and getting closer back to the trees where Michael had first emerged, his body began relaxing slightly, his arms still stiffly holding Gavin.

                It continually got darker the farther they walked into the woods. After walking a little ways from the lake, Gavin spoke up, “Micool?”

                “Yo.”

                “Micool, I’m scared,” the boy frantically muttered. Michael could feel his head moving as he looked around.

                Michael smiled, stopping and turning to his head to face Gavin, “Don’t be.” Gavin smiled brightly, making Michael’s smile settle on his face. Gavin began quietly humming, his forehead pressed against Michael’s back. The song had a happy sounding tune, though Michael wouldn’t know since he didn’t know the lyrics. It lightened Michael’s mood anyway. 

* * *

Besides Gavin’s humming and Michael’s occasional swear when he’d stumble, the trip was quiet. As they approached the edge of the forest though, the campus was brighter than it should have been. Jack and Ryan apparently had gone and informed a teacher of their situation while Michael was gone; there was a group of about twenty people, students and teachers, looking for Gavin when they reached the campus.

                “Look at the shit you caused,” Michael joked, causing Gavin to flush in embarrassment. A short ways away, emerging from the trees, was Geoff.

                “Man, it’s dark as dicks in there,” he laughed to himself, “I didn’t find them.” Geoff shrugged, heading towards the mess hall. The teachers and other staff that didn’t live in the town lived on the second floor of the mess hall. With Geoff’s announcement, a fair number of the people began heading towards their rooms.

                The two emerged from the trees right as a flashlight was shined at them, blinding Michael. “I found them!” a familiar, jovial voice exclaimed. As Michael’s eyes readjusted, he saw it was Ray, who’s shouting had caused others to come over. Jack, Ryan, Ray’s roommate Courtney, Ryan’s friend and Michael and Gavin’s classmate Lindsay, and Jack’s friend Caiti made their way over to the three boys.

                The group was all talking at once, Michael only being able to distinguish the common question, “Where’d you find him?”

                “By the lake,” Michael responded, marching through the crowd before shouting, “ I have wounded! Priority to the bitches, old, dying or fucked!” Michael grinned and could feel Gavin’s snicker at his choice of words. Michael carried Gavin to the mess hall, up the stairs, and into the nurse’s office. The nurse, or the nurse’s assistant at this time, was a kid no older than Gavin or Michael.

                “Can I help you?” the boy asked as Michael placed Gavin on the examining table.

                “I bloody wedged my foot in a tree,” Gavin looked at his feet.

                “I can’t do much, but let me see,” the boy said, finally looking up at the two. He rocked Gavin’s swollen foot around, getting a wince from the taller boy. “It doesn’t seem like it’s broken, just got wrenched the wrong way is all,” he explained, standing up and putting disinfectant on Gavin’s forehead and nose. “Keep ice on it and elevated until you go to bed. When you go to bed, take the ice off but keep it elevated. Come back here in the morning if it’s still swollen. Take some painkillers if it hurts,” the boy stated, moving back to the chair he had been sitting in when they came in.

                “What’s your name?” Michael asked as Gavin was climbing onto his back.

                “Caleb. I’m specializing in medicinal magic so I spend my days here when I’m not in class,” Caleb grinned, filling out a worksheet from his Saturday class.

                “Cool. I’m Michael and this is Gavin,” Michael declared as Gavin finished adjusting himself on Michael’s back.

                “Bty or Weapons?”

                “It’s Babel now,” Gavin replied.

                “That’s cooler than Yolo.”

                “That’s why we chose it,” Michael deadpanned.

                “Right… Well, hope to see you two around, but not here. I don’t want to see you two getting hurt,” Caleb waved them goodbye as the two left. When they were right outside of Building 3, Gavin spoke up.

                “Hey Micool…”

                “What, Gavvers?”

                “Thanks… for looking for me… and carrying me back…” Gavin’s voice was getting fainter the more he said, until Michael couldn’t understand him anymore.

                Michael smiled earnestly, “No problem buddy.” Michael pushed the door open with his shoulder and Gavin opened their dorm room. Michael set Gavin on his bed; staying close until Gavin had his leg propped up and was situated in his bed. Michael walked over to the door, locking it and shutting the overhead light off. He walked over to his own bed, falling face first into his pillow, staying there while Gavin snickered at him. As his giggles died down, Michael got comfortable in his nest-like covers, expecting sleep to come.

                “Hey Micool?” Gavin’s drowsy voice asked, him fighting off sleep.

                “What?” Michael yawned.

                “We should have a name.”

                “Why?”

                “Because all the best superhero teams have names. Like the Justice League, or the Avengers. We should have one too.”

                “Did Caleb give you any drugs when I wasn’t looking?” Michael questioned, not sure if Gavin was joking or not.

                “No. I think it’d be top if we had a name.”

                “Do you have any ideas then?”

                “No…”

                “Come up with a superhero name first. I’ll come up with one too,” Michael responded, hoping Gavin’d fall asleep while trying to come up with a name.

                A moment later, Gavin spoke up, waking Michael from his groggy, half asleep state, “Vav.”

                “Mogar,” Michael yawned.

                “What kind of name is that? We can’t come up with a team name with names like these!” Michael could make out Gavin’s arms flailing around.

                It was quiet for a few before Michael spoke up, “How about Team Nice Dynamite?”

                “Micool! You’re a genius! That name is tippity toppers!” Gavin shouted. Michael wished now wasn’t going to be the time Ryan destroyed their ceiling.

                “Go to bed.”

                “I can’t.”

                “Then shut up,” Michael said, falling asleep quickly after it became quiet. Michael’d be lying if he said it didn’t make him smile when he woke up to Gavin bouncing on his bed, yelling for “Mogar” to get up so “Team Nice Dynamite” could train.


	5. My Boy Builds Coffins

                After Gavin’s disappearance, Andrew and Nathan had decided to make Michael and Gavin’s armor next; the two having finished Amanda and Jennifer’s the day before. They spent the rainy Monday interviewing the two boys; Andrew interviewing Michael and Nathan interviewing Gavin.

                The two drew designs for their armor based on their answers and things they noticed about the two. Michael favored his right side, so Andrew designed the armor to have slightly more on the left to defend him. Gavin had a slight limp that had developed because of the day before, but he was otherwise light on his feet; Nathan designed his armor to light and easy to move in while still giving the necessary protection. Andrew and Nathan both noticed that when asked about their likes, dislikes, and interests, the two boys would answer with different video games and video game characters and start going into full detail about their favorites.

                Gavin focused a lot on Minecraft and what he’d built while playing the game, though his common complaint was “how those creepers just destroy all the work we’d done. It all just gets outright mullared.”  When Nathan asked him to explain why creepers destroy things, Gavin merely said, “Because they suck nobs and get all flashy when you get near them.” Nathan asked if they exploded and Gavin retorted with, “Of course! It’s how they destroy everything!” Nathan used his phone and pulled up a picture of a creeper, asking if Gavin would want something like that as his armor. “Sure, I mean, I think creepers are cool. It’s also kinda like camo. No one’d be able to see me!” he shrugged, grinning at the thought.

                Michael talked about all kinds of games. Games he’d get mad at, games he’d finished, games he played when he was little, and other games. When asked what his favorite game was, he simply replied with, “I don’t know. Probably fucking Banjo Kazooie.” When asked to explain Banjo Kazooie, he responded with, “A bear and his bird buddy.” Andrew typed Banjo Kazooie into her phone, waiting for the internet to load up the picture she’d chosen.

                “Which do you like more? The bear or the bird?” she asked.

                “The bear, obviously. Sure, Kazooie does all the heavy lifting, but Banjo’s the icon. If you see Banjo, you know it’s fucking Banjo Kazooie. Kazooie, not so much,” he explained, making broad gestures as he spoke.

                “So,” Andrew started, turning her sketch book to face him and placing her phone on top of it, “would you like something like this,” she pointed to the sketch, “that looks like this,” she finished, pointing to her phone.

                “I’d love it,” he grinned. 

* * *

Every few days or so, Michael and Gavin would spend their time with Andrew and Nathan. They’d ask each other questions, talk about their pasts, anything to keep conversation going. Andrew and Nathan spoke of how they met once, the story leaving a lasting impression on Michael and Gavin. They spoke of how their lives mirrored the two boys in some ways; how they were assigned to be dorm mates, though Nathan arrived three days after classes started due to processing errors, how the two became as close as they are after an incident at the lake, and how they were shoved into something truly terrifying for the two.

                “We had just graduated-“ Nathan started.

                “Literally. It happened, like, three hours afterwards,” Andrew interrupted.

                “We’d graduated and were shoved into a battle. Turns out, our least favorite human being, the infamous Ashley, turned out to be a traitor. She was a jealous human for a while, who then became a jealous AND evil bitch. Terrible that we had to do what we did,” he told, cursing as he ran out of bobbin thread.

                “Did you… Ya know… Off her?” Gavin tentatively asked.

                “Course we did! It’s basically suicide not to’ve. She knew where we were, how to fight us, seeing as she was in our class after all, and she was a graduate. It’s like giving the enemy with a nuclear bomb a map of the most heavily populated city in your country. Mass suicide and genocide. Damn, you’d think he’d’ve learned something by now,” Andrew said, focusing intently on a zipper she was sewing onto the armor for Michael.

                The days continued in a similar fashion, Gavin and Michael learning more and more about these two characters and each other. 

* * *

On the last day of November was the season’s first snow. There was nothing different about that Friday. The day started cloudy and gloomy, like most days that month. The Babel students figured it would start raining in the afternoon like it normally did, not expecting anything to really happen.

                Michael and Gavin were trying on their armor for the last time, final adjustments to be finished that day.

                Michael’s armor looked remarkably like the bear’s outfit he’d requested two months earlier. He had a hoodie with lightweight armor underneath, the jacket resembling the bear with a bear face and ears on the hood. He had yellow shorts, the material resembling jeans and was magically reinforced into armor strength. He also wore leg wrappings which were reinforced with magic as well. His boots were regular combat boots, though they had been modified to resemble bear paws. He wore leather gloves that also resembled bear paws and the palms were made to be able to resist any kind of weapon impact, be it bullet or blade. His face was covered with a brown and tan scarf, the material interlaced with thread with the strength of steel. The finishing touch was the blue backpack Andrew had made for him. She’d enchanted it to hold more than it should and it could repel magic shot towards his back.

                Gavin’s armor was a bit more “free form”, as Nathan had explained. He wore forest green skinny jeans (enchanted similarly to Michael’s shorts) that had lighter green colored pockets. His boots were a pixelated green pattern. He wore a lighter green jacket with a face spreading over the zipper. His gloves were leather and fingerless and also bore a similar pixelated pattern to his shoes. He didn’t have a hood like Michael did, but instead he had a pair of one-way goggles; the outside was black while he could see through them clear as day. His scarf was also a pixelated green and had a black frown on it and defended the rest of his face.

                When the two boys emerged from the storage closet they’d changed in, Michael and Gavin examined each other before giving their respective signs of approval. Andrew and Nathan shook hands and complimented each other’s sewing ability, flattering each other.

                The group ate lunch with each other and planned the rest of the day. They agreed to go into town and have a little fun with the owners of the store.

                “Armor is a huge step towards advancing in ranks. Everyone in town finds it really admirable to get armor because it’s a step closer to being able to fight for what you choose to,” Nathan said, leading them into the hallway and walking towards the Yolo classroom. When they walk by, they see Joel talking to someone out of sight. He seemed pretty happy until he noticed them looking in. Then he looked “bloody ecstatic,” as Gavin said a while later. He grabbed the arm of who he was talking to and dragging them over, revealing Ray in what looked like a suit.

                “Well look at that, he finished someone’s armor,” Andrew congratulated sarcastically.

                “Har har, very funny. Pretty fucking good for my third armor sewn,” Joel remarked, showing off Ray and his outfit.

                Ray’s armor was fairly different from Michael and Gavin’s. He wore black bootleg jeans that looked fancy enough to make even a t-shirt look formal. He had a white dress shirt and vest; the pocket of the shirt holding a red handkerchief. He had a black dress coat with a cape add-on, the lining red. He had white leather gloves that almost looked like they were glowing. Almost. Similar to Gavin’s goggles, Ray had what looked like an eyemask that was white, similarly to how Gavin’s were black. He had a fedora with a rose on the brim.

                “It’s pretty damn cool,” Nathan replied after looking closely at it.

                “It’s comfy, I can give it that,” Ray said, waving at Michael and Gavin.

                Joel and Ray joined the group, agreeing that they should celebrate. Joel, though, had an idea. Andrew and Nathan snickered about how they were impressed that there wasn’t any smoke coming from his ears.

                Joel rolled his eyes, “I think I heard about there being some others getting armor made over in Bty, maybe we should let them join. It’d be polite to at least ask.” So the party went to the other side of the building to the Bty classroom.

                In the room were Jack and Ryan, dressed in armor drastically different from each other’s.

                Jack looked like a casual BMX rider, his body covered in easy to move in clothing that was subtly enforced with actual armor. His head, though, was completely covered in a light-weight helmet that looked like a dirt bikers.

                Ryan, on the opposite side of the Earth fashion-wise, stood in a dress coat similar to Ray’s but without the cape. The boy also had a red tartan kilt on, shorts made of the same fabric as Michael’s jacket peeking out from the bottom.

                Both boys had boots that looked very heavy and flashy, though they were lightweight due to the kind of fighting the boys did. They also wore gloves, Jack’s black and Ryan’s red, that glowed like Ray’s; most likely enchanted to pack a harder punch.

                Ray asked if the two wanted to join their armor celebration. The two boys agreed to join, as long as they didn’t have to go into town. The group compromised, sending Andrew, Nathan, and Joel to get party supplies and the boys would have the party in Gavin and Michael’s large room when they returned. 

* * *

Joel came back to the party alone, explaining that Geoff had asked Andrew and Nathan for help with something.

                “They said to have our celebration anyway and they’ll come here when they’re done,” he shrugged and began digging through bags to set up their shindig. 

* * *

Geoff was driving the yellow ATV towards the area he’d gotten the tip about. Apparently there was some suspicious activity going on on top of the hill leading out of town.

                “Drive only about two-thirds of the way up,” Andrew instructed, her happy-go-lucky demeanor flipped to a serious one. Nathan was silent while he ran through one of their battle strategies.

                _Assess situation. Stay back. Stay silent. Allow Miss Marie to investigate and negotiate. They make the first move. Defend her back. Stay back. Do not instigate close combat with yourself. Give her time to fight off her foes. Proceed forward. More power. Heal if injured._

                Geoff powered down the ATV when they were far enough away to not be seen, but close enough to hear any interactions. The area was dead silent. The young pair made their way forward, not making any noise as they readied themselves for anything.

                A few years earlier, Geoff had gotten injured on the battlefield. He was shot with an explosive round made of magic. The magic had left a hole in the muscle making up his right shoulder; leaving his right arm useless in a situation with a high magic concentration.

                Geoff moved closer to where the duo were heading, stopping as he lost feeling in his right hand.

                “I’ll be seeing you two later,” Geoff whispered as he sat on the ground, not expecting them to hear him. Andrew turned around and waved to him, grinning. 

* * *

Andrew Marie was never scared when she saw her opponents. She was never afraid of what may or may not be the cause of her demise. She knew she was only a pawn in the chess game of the world they lived in. She made sure to brace herself, to come to terms with what her death may be. She wasn’t afraid when she saw the man standing alone on top of the hill.

Nathan feared what he saw. He was skeptical and afraid of the power the world had and how much of it was given to man. He feared death. He accepted that his death wouldn’t be peaceful and that either he’d see the love of his life die in front of his eyes, or vice versa.

The man on the top of the hill was wearing a bright red wig, obscuring part of his face. He was about the same height as Andrew and stood stiff, as though he was trying to keep himself awake or he was extremely stressed out. From what the two could tell, either description fit the man. He was lean and appeared physically fit and agile.

                “Sir, I need to know your name and what you’re doing here,” Andrew stated authoritatively, stepping forward. Nathan remained quiet and stoic.

                “Monty Oum. I’m here to recruit students to my cause. Not that that matters to you, seeing as you won’t be interfering with it,” Monty said, grinning in a way that seemed evil. Nathan picked that sign up before Andrew did, drawing the pistol on his right thigh, aiming and firing. He missed, though, as Monty seemed to teleport to a different spot.

                Nathan ran up to Andrew, whispering in her ear, “He specializes in magic. Be ready to strike.” She released her pole from its holster and released it to its full length, reaching above her head.

                Monty approached them slowly from their left, mumbling to himself about “how these kids better be worth the time and effort to get them."

                The two stood stock still and held their breaths, anticipating what Monty would do.

                As he moved forward, he swiped his hand in front of him. Nathan recognized the movement, tapping Andrew twice on each shoulder, murmuring the counter-spell to the paralysis spell Monty had used on them. Andrew stepped forward, turning to face Monty.

                “Monty, you don’t have to do this,” Andrew pleaded shakily, hoping maybe fear could change what he was planning to do. She was wrong.

                “Have to? Who said I was being forced to do this?” he smirked, snapping his fingers. Flames flew from his fingertips and wrapped around Andrew’s ankles. She made no noise as the fire burned her legs, though blood dripped from her bit lip and tears from her eyes.

                Nathan aimed his pistol and spoke for Andrew as the fire died down around her feet. “Monty, we didn’t come to fight you. We just want to talk,” he said, looking at Monty through the site.

                “Why the weapons then?” he questioned, not moving.

                “Like you take your magic everywhere, we take our weapons. For our safety,” Andrew gasped from the ground, her hands wrapped around her legs and glowing lime green.

                Monty hmmed before he wrapped his index finger around his thumb, causing Andrew to freeze.

                She screamed, “Natie!” before she started choking, unable to breathe. Nathan fired his pistol, hitting Monty in his right arm. He fired again and again, hitting Monty several times but never anywhere vital; his arm, his ear, grazing his thigh.

                Nathan knew when Andrew fell unconscious. He knew she’d never wake up if he didn’t either a) kill Monty or b) make him fall unconscious as well. He aimed for a lethal blow to his head when he heard the most deafening noise he’d ever heard; the small empty click of an empty gun.

                He knew when Monty impaled him with a shard of earth taken from the hill the two stood on. He knew when he started screaming. He knew his screams weren’t from pain from the rock in his stomach, but from knowing he’d lost not only his life, but also the life of his wife, partner, and best friend. He knew when she died. He knew when his screams morphed into painful sobs. He knew when he died, when he was no longer part of the world of the living. He knew that the last thing he’d see as a human was his wife’s lifeless body, one hand holding her throat and the other reaching for him with the palm facing the sky, a rosary cross from her childhood wrapped around her wrist. He knew his last thought and idly hoped maybe someone, somewhere would agree with him.

                _At least we died doing what we love, protecting those in need._

* * *

Geoff knew what had happened when the blood-curdling scream stopped. He knew that he’d better get the hell outta dodge if he didn’t want to get involved. He knew the two had died in the line of duty and that after the threat had moved away, he’d send Burnie or someone to go get them, unable to handle seeing them gone. He ran back to the ATV and drove off, hoping whoever attacked and killed his old students wouldn’t chase after him.

                As he approached town again, the sky darkening from the sunset, he felt a sort of chill go down his spine. Not a chill that someone was there or that he was being watched, but one from cold. He felt cold. 

* * *

The boys had played games on the TV brought down from Ryan and Jack’s room and had generally had great fun. They smiled and joked, screamed and laughed. They were yelled at by neighbors and quieted down for several hours, watching movies that Michael and Gavin had brought. With Blues Brothers references quoted during the latest game round and slang from Wallace and Gromit, they had great fun.

                “Hey! Look at that!” Ray shouted, interrupting their latest screaming match in the two dollar party game Ray had jokingly bought before coming to their school.

                “Seems early this year,” Joel muttered, smiling.

                The boys put down their controllers and left the room, going outside. The boys ran around in the falling snow, Gavin slipping in some muck made by the snow melting as soon as it hit the ground. Joel looked towards the way back from town and saw Geoff standing under the trees alone. Joel understood what had happened and what they had lost at that sight and bowed his head momentarily before looking up at the sky, smiling sadly.

                _At least you got to do what you wanted with your lives. And at least it’s pretty._

                Joel knew his tears were freezing on his face as the temperature got lower and lower, but he knew he wasn’t the only one slowing freezing the last moment they were together in his mind; Andrew smiling, telling him what to tell the boys and Nathan smirking, telling him not to worry and they’ll be there shortly to have fun as well. Joel smiled happily at that last memory before wiping the tear slush from his cheeks.

                _It’s not over yet. We’re ready for what you’re gonna throw at us now._

It snowed on the last day of November and it didn’t stop until the first day of January.


	6. This is War

                The first of December was spent in the auditorium. Every class was delayed until further notice, either another day or later that day. Not unlike the first day of school, the students were mixed together; friends sat by friends, classes spread all over the room.

                Burnie walked along the edge of the stage, his posture slouched and his expression somber. Each teacher stood in room order a fair ways behind Burnie. From stage left stood Kathleen, a strong blonde haired woman; the teacher for the Bty class. In the middle of the three was Gus, a scruffy man that naturally look flustered; the teacher of the Yolo class, a name he begrudgingly allowed. And standing stage right was Geoff, his relaxed demeanor replaced with subtle rage as he repeatedly clenched his fists at his sides and his face seemed more alert.

                “I regret having to inform you of this, but a threat is moving closer to us. The threat was fought yesterday by two of our assistants and, unfortunately, they will not be returning-“

                “Who and why?” a girl towards the back of the auditorium shouted, interrupting Burnie.

                “Andrew Marie Bruttenholm and Nathan Cross. They fought-“

                Geoff stepped forward and stood next to Burnie, shouting, “Andrew and Nathan were killed on top of the hill outside of town yesterday. We don’t know where the threat has gone, but we’re going to be taking extreme precautions to prevent any more deaths among faculty or students. Each teacher is going to take on training a group of students as…” he lost his train of thought. Burnie picked up where he left off.

                “As sort of protectors. Class will still meet normally for students not in these groups. However, if you’re chosen to be in a group, you’ll report to your leader. So let’s say Geoff here chooses someone from Bty and someone from Yolo, the two would only go to Geoff’s class. Geoff would still teach his normal class, but he’d also teach them how to interact with others in a fight against weapons. On the days he isn’t teaching his class, he’d be teaching all of them how to work alongside each other and reinforce what the others are doing. So the actual reason for this meeting is to announce who has been chosen by one of these wonderful teachers and what they’ll be doing until further notice, I guess,” Burnie finished, stepping away and moving back to where the three teachers were originally standing.

                “One last thing before we make this announcement. We tried to keep partners together as best as we could, but some of you have been separated from each other. When the threat has passed, you’ll be reunited with each other,” Kathleen stated before turning towards Geoff.

                “Since I knew who I wanted first, I’ll start. My group is Jack Pattillo, Ryan Haywood, Joel Heyman, who’s actually an assistant but I don’t really care about that, Michael Jones, Gavin Free, Ray Narvaez, and Caleb Denecour,” Geoff read from a sticky note. “I had more people on here, but I was told not to have that many people,” Geoff deepened his voice as low as he could go, “’If you have too many kids, someone’s gonna get neglected and you’ll have their death on your shoulders’,” his voice cracked frequently during his quotation. “I already have two deaths on my shoulders so I can’t really complain too much,” Geoff shrugged, facing Gus.

                Gus listed his students, none particularly standing out as recognizable names, though those who were separated from their partners in Geoff’s group were picked up by Gus. A Jaune, a different Michael, Jennifer and Amanda, Jordan Denecour, Courtney, Caiti . No one else was noticeably special.

                As Kathleen began her list, heads began perking up. The names she listed were kids that were near-prodigies. “Miles Luna, Kerry Shawcross, Shane Newville, Lindsay Tuggey, Kara Eberle, Arryn Zech, and Barbara Dunkleman.” By that point in the school year, it was well known what these kids could do. Shane and Lindsay could nearly destroy anyone in Babel. Kara, Miles, and Kerry were monsters in Yolo. Barbara and Arryn were brutal towards anyone who challenged them in Bty.

                Burnie stepped forward again, shouting his next announcement, “You’re dismissed back to your classes,” he looked down at his watch, “You’ll be dismissed from your classes at 1:30. Those of you that were chosen, you’ll go to the room for your leader afterwards. So Geoff’s kids will go to Room 3, Kathleen’s to Room 1, and Gus’s to Room 2. That’s it for now,” Burnie announced, walking off the stage with the other three following.

                “Well damn,” Michael sighed, standing up.

                “Didn’t expect that,” Gavin muttered, looking at the ground.

                “Which part? Being told Andrew and Nathan are dead or being told we’re being thrown under the bus?” Michael sneered.

                “Yes?” Gavin answered, getting up and heading towards their classroom. Several kids were already in the room when the two walked in, others still making their way up from the basement. Michael crossed the room to where Lindsay and Shane were talking animatedly to each other.

                Michael tapped Lindsay’s shoulder, getting her attention. “Congrats on being chosen,” he smiled.

                “You too Jones. Didn’t think daddy dearest would choose you and large nose to be on his team,” she smirked, her tone joking as she used the nickname Geoff had gotten outside of class.

                “Oh, and why’d you think that?” he raised an eyebrow.

                “Well, Gavin tried getting himself killed by the lake a few months ago and you look like your sword’s gonna attack you when you aren’t paying attention,” she shrugged. “You two don’t really seem like you could handle it is all. Then again, I think the only reason Amanda and Jennifer were chosen is because they have armor,” the three laughed. Michael made his way back over to the other side of the room where he and Gavin usually sat. Geoff walked in shortly after kids stopped coming through the door.

                “Today, no lesson. I’m going to answer any questions you have,” he said, sounding deflated. “Shout your questions but be polite. One at a time.”

                “What’s the name of the school?” a boy asked.

                “Conquistador. There is an actual name the government refers to it as, but everyone like us just refers to it by code name. We ended up with Conquistador.”

                “What’s happening?” Jennifer, the blonde haired girl asked.

                “The training academy is being forced to throw new trainees into battle without the training they need. There’s nothing we can do about it,” he shrugged, seeming unbothered by this.

                “What’s the name of what we’re being trained to do?” a boy fumbled and stuttered.

                Geoff thought for a moment before speaking, “There’s an international group that started this. They learned that kids during puberty have great potential for great power. They learned that if taught during this stage in life, it’s an ability they’ll have until they die. This group chose to create schools to teach this, using others with the abilities as leaders. They formed the old school over in the UK; you’ll probably hear it called Little Talks. The schools began spreading worldwide and the original group gained more members. They decided to become allies with the nations participating; this is why there aren’t any televised wars using spellcasters. The group decided they needed a code name to keep what they did a secret. They decided on a name that not only named their secret government group but also what we do here. This school was formed to teach the ways of the Northern Lights,” he preached, snickering afterwards.

                “Who are we going up against?” Shane asked.

                Geoff began pacing the room as he spoke, “We don’t know. I was there and I don’t know who or what we’re going up against. Which is why some of you are being trained to fight against some of the strongest creatures and people known to this planet. The rest of you will keep being trained as soldiers while those in groups are basically being trained to be super-soldiers, more or less. Just how we have to do it,” he shrugged, glancing at the clock. It read 1:03. He sighed before speaking again, “I’m sorry about all this. Really, I am. The last thing I would ever want to put you kids through is fighting a fight you aren’t meant to. This shouldn’t be placed on your heads. It’s cruel and unfair,” he breathed deeply through his nose before stopping in front of Gavin and Michael, “I’m sorry that we’re nearly digging your graves already.”

                Geoff collapsed onto the floor, sitting with his legs crossed. He was holding his head between his hands, breathing deeply. “You’re all such strong and brave kids, but I’m afraid of what’s probably going to happen to you.”

                “You said probably,” Michael stated loudly, “not will. Have some faith in us Geoff.”

                “It’s not like we’re incompetent or anything,” Lindsay joked, getting Geoff to smile.

                “Alright,” Geoff rose, his smile brightening as he did so, “no time for us to mope, we’ve got training to do. Those of you not in a group, you’re dismissed for the day. Those who are are dismissed to your new temporary teacher’s room.” Students began rising from their seats and going out the door. “Michael, Gavin. I want to speak with you.”

                The two sat back down, waiting. Geoff kneeled in front of the table the two shared, “You think you can do this?”

                “Yeah” “Absolutely,” the two excitedly whispered.

                “I’ve put a lot of faith in you two. I chose you two because you get along like a pair should. At least, you do in class. You feed off each other and put enough trust in the other. You two are what a pair needs to be. I want to know from you two though, did I make the wrong decision choosing you,” he looked sternly at the teenagers. They shook their heads no. “Good. Let’s get going,” he stood and led the two to their classroom, waiting for the others. 

* * *

Joel was waiting for them when the three arrived.

                “Thought I should wait here.”

                “That’s fine. How’re you holding up?” Geoff asked, placing a hand on Joel’s shoulder.

                “Better than I thought I would. We were close but it was still just a working relationship,” Joel shrugged, “It’ll be weird not seeing them around though.”

                “They did have quite the presence in a room, that’s for sure.”

                Michael and Gavin had wandered into the storage room as the other two spoke.

                “I think I know what I’m going to use,” Gavin stated as they walked the aisles.

                “And what’s that?” Michael asked, grabbing the diamond great sword he liked.

                “A bow. Distance, silent, light weight… I dunno. It just seems right for me to use it,” he whispered almost self-consciously.

                “It’s easier to carry around too, right? Like, you don’t have to carry 500 knives in your pockets or anything,” Michael said, peeking his head around the cabinets holding the weapons. Gavin glanced up at him and grinned.

                “Come on lads, it’s one thirty,” Geoff shouted into the room. The boys could hear kids coming in the room next door.

                As they emerged from the storage room, they could hear the whispers from the other boys talking to each other. Geoff stood in front of the window wall, quiet as the boys chatted. Michael mentally noted that for the first time that year, they fancier chairs were being used rather than the folding chairs.

                “Alright boys, you heard what was said earlier so I don’t need to repeat myself. In a moment, you’re going to say your name and what you specialize in. I’ll start, and then Joel, and then we’ll go down the row to Joel’s left. So I’m Geoff Ramsey. I specialize in weaponry, excelling at close quarter combat with a sword,” Geoff stated, nodding to Joel.

                “Joel Heyman. Defensive magic.” The room was quiet before they began quickly going down the line.

                “Ray Narvaez. Offensive magic.”

                “Caleb Denecour. Medicinal magic.”

                “Ryan Haywood. Physical combat.”

                “Jack Pattillo. Physical combat.”

                “Michael Jones. Diamond great sword.”

                “Gavin Free. Bow and arrow.”

                Geoff nodded before sighing, “Alright. Tomorrow we’ll start training. First, I want us to get to know each other. We’re going to be teammates, so we should be friends as well.”

                “I’m ‘boring’,” Joel made air quotes, “because I, for whatever reason, find the stock market interesting.”

                “I have a gamer score of over 300,000,” Ray said after a few minutes of silence.

                “How. How do you have a gamer score that fucking high,” Geoff said disbelievingly.

                “I play games?”

                “I play a lot of games and I’m nowhere near that!” Jack shouted. The boys began talking about games, like the ones they played the day before. Soon the conversation began drifting towards what everyone did in and out of class.

                “So we were being taught how to transform people into other things like animals, right? Well Ray here transforms poor Courtney into a Minecraft cake. Gus was like, ‘Well done guys’ and taught us the reverse spell. Food is apparently different enough to have a different spell to transform back. So after a good five minutes of chanting the reverse spell and nothing happening, Ray just starts screaming bloody murder,” Caleb told, giggling towards the end. The other boys began laughing at this.

                “I thought I’d forever transformed her into cake! I was flipping terrified!” Ray continued laughing, “And that, my comrades, is how I got my fear of cake.” They talked endlessly, the training area dark before anyone said anything about the time.

                “It’s getting late and I have on last thing I want to ask you guys. We have class names and we should probably come up with a name for our group,” Geoff said from his spot on the floor. They’d progressively moved their chairs into a circle the longer they talked. Everyone was quiet as they thought.

                “How about Achievement Hunter? Ray’s got this absurd gamer score, the rest of us have Xbox Live…” Jack mumbled quietly.

                “I like it. Anyone want something different?” Geoff asked. The group shook their heads no. “Alright. Go get some food and sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

* * *

Room 103 in Building 3 was dark as Gavin laid awake. Michael had said goodnight hours ago, turning off the main light. He looked over at the digital clock he had on his side-table. 2:17 read the bright red numbers.

                “Oh sausages,” Gavin whispered, rolling out of bed. He walked over to the window in the large room and knelt in front of it, watching the snow fell outside.

                Gavin must have fallen asleep because in what felt like the blink of an eye, he was lying on the floor in front of the window. He stumbled over to his bed and read the clock again, 4:07.

                “Dammit,” he whispered. He walked over towards the door, grabbing his armor jacket and boots. He closed the door as quietly as he could, letting go only after he heard the click of the latch closing. He lowered himself to the floor and tied his boots. Just as quietly as he did with his room’s door, he opened the door leading outside.

                Gavin had always loved the snow. He liked how you could make anything with it and it would always be beautiful. He liked how pretty it was when it was falling and right afterwards. Gavin, though, hated the cold. He hated how many layers he had to wear to keep warm. He hated how no matter how hard he’d try, his nose would still be cold and red.

                As he stepped out into the freezing weather, he pulled the scarf around his face, draping it over his ears and wrapping it tightly. He reached into his pockets and pulled out his gloves, putting them on. He began walking around, the unmarred snow crunching under his feet.

                Gavin knelt down and grabbed a handful of snow, compacting it into a ball. He grinned wickedly to himself before going back inside, snowball in hand. Unlike when he left, he ran in loudly. Michael groaned before flipping over onto his stomach, revealing Gavin’s true target. Gavin giggled before walking over to Michael’s bed.

                “Gavin, get in your own bed,” Michael groaned groggily. Gavin quietly apologized, mumbling about going to the bathroom.

                Gavin stood next to Michael’s bed, the angry boy blissfully unaware of the danger he was in. The mischievous grin returned to Gavin’s face as he reached over to Michael’s pajama shirt and grabbed the neck of it. He pulled it to where he had just enough room to shove the snowball down. As fast as the boy could, he shoved the snowball down, not realizing how victorious he was until right before he was back outside.

                “Gavin!” Michael shrieked, bolting out of his bed and chasing after Gavin. Michael realized he had tackled Gavin down to the snow only after he realized he was freezing cold.

                “Micool! Please stop!” Gavin laughed. Michael started laughing after a moment, his body shaking from cold.

                “Asshole.”

                “Micool!” Gavin smiled, “Micool, let’s play in the snow.”

                “It’s like two in the morning. You should go to bed.”

                “It’s closer to five, actually. We can play then eat then train then eat then-“

                Michael clamped his hand over Gavin’s mouth, “I’ll play, but at least let me get dressed,” he stood up, crying out when his feet were covered in snow. Gavin stood up and held his arms out, offering to carry Michael inside.

                They were back on the ground about .75 seconds later.

                “I swear to god Gavin,” Michael swore, getting back up and running inside.

                “Micool, don’t leave me!” Gavin shouted, running after him. 

* * *

Miles and Kerry were standing in large winter coats behind a few rows of trees close to Building 2. Monty was rambling about something that neither boy was too interested in at the moment, both distracted by the screaming going on away from them.

                “You’re going to go through school normally. Don’t draw attention to yourselves in any way,” Monty said, looking at his flailing hands as he spoke.

                “That’s a bit difficult to do,” Miles said, glancing towards Kerry’s feet.

                “How’s that? It’s not like you’re the best of the best or anything,” Monty said, glaring slightly at the boy.

                “That’s just it though. We are the best of the best here. We’re even in a group to help defend the school from the guy who caused a ruckus in town,” Kerry said, looking up at Monty.

                “That’s funny. You’ve been recruited to kill me, the guy who’s recruiting you to my cause,” Monty laughed quietly. “That’s good. That’s really good.”

                “Oh,” Miles said, realization spreading on his face. “So that means we’re doing ‘evil’ things with you, yes?”

                “According to the school, yes. You and I don’t agree that some of the things they’re trying to teach you are right or relevant. We’re merely modernizing and advancing what they teach. But they don’t agree and grind into your heads that what I’m doing is evil and wrong,” Monty explained. “So are you staying with me or not?”

                “Of course, I just wanted to make sure I was thinking right,” Miles nodded.

                “Pass this on to the others. I need to leave before anyone realizes I’m here,” Monty whispered, teleporting away from them.

                Miles and Kerry quickly walked back into their dorm, the bottoms of their pajamas covered in clumps of snow from the short hike back inside. 

* * *

Michael and Gavin stood in their full armor about fifteen feet away from their dorm room window. They were throwing snowballs at Ryan and Jack’s window for about five minutes now, only hitting it once.

                “We’re quite ‘orrible at this,” Gavin said, throwing another and having it hit below the window.

                “Maybe we are too far away. Hold on,” Michael said, walking away from Gavin and looking at where he was standing and where the snowball had hit. “Take three steps forward,” he shouted. Gavin did as he was told. “Now try.” Gavin threw it and hit the window straight in the middle.

                “I guess they were right when they said you had to be gifted to get in,” Gavin grinned at Michael as he walked over.

                “Eh. That’s really about all I’m good at doing. I suck fucking dicks when it comes to writing. I’m pretty good at more complex math but I can do simply, real life math in my head easily,” Michael shrugged, chucking another snowball at the window, hitting the very top of it.

                They threw three more snowballs before Jack opened the window. “I swear, what has possessed you to throw snowballs at our window.”

                “Come play with us!” Gavin shouted. They heard Ryan groan before he appeared behind Jack.

                “No,” Ryan said, handing Jack his glasses.

                “Please! Michael will make us breakfast later!” Gavin pleaded.

                “No,” Ryan and Jack stated.

                “Come on! It’ll give you a reason to break in your armor!” Michael shouted. “It’s meant to be used anywhere, right? Try using it in the snow!”

                Ryan and Jack groaned before closing their window. Michael and Gavin stood still for a few minutes before the other two walked out of the door, both fully dressed in their armor.

                “Happy?” Jack barked as the two walked towards the Babel students.

                “Thrilled. Let’s go get Ray and Caleb,” Gavin said around his teeth chattering. 

* * *

Caleb wandered the hallways of Building 2, hoping he might be able to chat with someone awake as well. Caleb had had problems sleeping since he was little, but never as bad as they had been recently. He’d get maybe two hours a night if he was lucky. The nurse had said he was suffering from insomnia and should do this, that, and the other to help him go to sleep, but he really didn’t care. His body had slowly adjusted to the little sleep he’d get.

                As he approached room 145 for the fifth time that night, he was startled to see Ray emerging from the room, fully dressed in his armor.

                “Shh,” Ray put a finger to his lips, quietly pulling the door behind him shut.

                “What’re you doing?” Caleb whispered as they began walking away from the room.

                “Oh, ya know, getting dressed in armor to go play in the snow with the rest of the team. You should join us,” Ray moved his hands as he spoke.

                Caleb thought for a moment before nodding his head, “Alright. Let me go get dressed real quick.” Caleb ran back to his room and put on the hand-me-down armor he’d gotten when his cousin had effectively left the field. It resembled that of a stereotypical nurse with the white garb and a hat with a red cross on it. The armor closely resembled Gavin’s with Michael’s coat, though it was entirely white, the hood having a red cross on it. He wrapped the white scarf around his face and tied his white boots before being stopped by his roommate.

                “You’re being called to training this early?” his brother Jordan asked tiredly.

                “Nah. I’m going to go bond with my team mates by throwing snowballs at them,” Caleb grinned before walking over to his brother’s bedside.

                “Have fun. I get to do team building exercises with my group later and in the afternoon we start training,” he yawned, already falling back asleep.

                “I hope you’ll have fun today,” Caleb whispered, patting his brother’s shoulder. He stood and walked out of the room, meeting up with Ray at the exit at the end of the hall. 

* * *

The sun was rising when Joel woke up. He could hear the muffled laughter of kids outside. He got up and got dressed in his armor. His armor was blue and resembled Master Chief’s from Halo, though aimed more at being used by someone who uses magic. The gloves were fingerless, making more intricate spells easier to cast in armor. The armor looked like it had seen combat before with little dents and scratches in the paint here and there from weapons or bodies.

                He walked out of his room and down through the empty mess hall, heading towards Room 3. After pushing through the door though, he realized that the laughter he heard before was familiar.

                The rest of his team mates were currently running around the training ring for the Bty class, next to Building 3 and below the mess hall. They were throwing snowballs at each other from behind snow forts and were almost trying to advance on the other side’s fort, taking more land as theirs.

                Michael, Jack, and Caleb were on the left side of the ring, Jack and Michael taking many hits from the others. Caleb, though, was slowly crawling across their battle’s No Man’s Land. The boy disappeared when he tilted his head down to wear the others couldn’t see the red cross.

                Ryan, Gavin, and Ray were throwing snowballs endlessly from the right side of the ring, laughing every time they were hit by one. They were unprepared when Caleb rose from the ground, storming through their fort, laughing loudly and happily as he smashed the fort.

                “We win!” Michael and Jack shouted, whooping victoriously with Caleb.

                Joel applauded from his spot a few feet from the edge of the ring, smiling widely at them. “Geoff and I woulda played too if you’d have gone and woken us up,” he joked.

                “Didn’t think about it,” Ray said, shrugging.

                “We got preoccupied by the great fun of throwing snow at each other,” Ryan smiled.

                “We should go make something for Geoff… I know what we should do,” Joel said, motioning for them to follow him.

                The boys walked into the main building, giggling at what they thought Joel had in mind. None of the rooms were locked, someone having already gone through unlocking the doors to allow students to come into their classrooms as they awoke. The seven of them walked onto the training field, the snow almost a foot deep from not being used or to any heat for any to melt.

                “We’re going to build a giant dick. And it will be the first thing he sees when he walks in the room. And he will find it hilarious,” Joel rambled as the boys had already begun building a base for it to reside on. 

* * *

The world was brightening when Gavin placed the finishing amount of snow on the large penis they had made, him balancing precariously on a branch on a tree next to their creation.

                “We’re done!” several of the boys shouted, Gavin throwing his hands in the air in celebration with them.

                “Well, guess that means I’m making everyone pancakes, yes?” Michael asked, placing his hands on his hips.

                “Of course,” Gavin stated as he hopped off the branch, landing as gracefully as the clumsy boy could. He led the way out of the field, the other six boys following him to his dorm room.

                The morning was somewhat loud as they set up the party game they had been playing two days beforehand once again as Michael cooked, the smell of pancakes and melting chocolate chips filling the room. Gavin and Ryan were paired together while Joel and Ray were paired up. They played the party game with Jack helping Joel and Ray while Caleb helped Gavin and Ryan. Shortly before Michael had finished cooking, they’d defeated the final battle of the game and had been given their awards, deeming Joel and Ray the victors.

                “Ah bollocks,” Gavin mumbled as he moved from his place in front of the television that hadn’t made its way back to Jack and Ryan’s room to a spot by the coffee table situated in the middle of the room.

                “I tried my best to help you guys!” Caleb defended.

                “And that’s what counts,” Ryan said, patting Caleb’s back. Michael made his way over with a stack of paper plates, the top one holding over a dozen pancakes. He went back over to the small kitchenette and grabbed a handful of plastic forks, the bottle of syrup, and a dish that had a stick of butter in it.

                The boys situated themselves around the table, talking around mouths full of food about more games that they each had that they could convince their parents to send them for Christmas.

                “That’d probably be the best thing they could give us. A chunk of our old lives here where everything’s changing around us,” Michael mused.

                “It’d be nice at least. Maybe get a letter or card from them telling us what we’re missing,” Caleb mumbled.

                “Most of us have siblings, right? It’d be nice to hear what they’re up to,” Gavin shot back.

                “Not really. A lot of the kids here are actually only children and if they do have siblings, their older ones were sent here before them,” Joel explained. “Take Andrew for example. She had two older brothers that were a year apart. The younger one was bright enough that he could easily skip a grade, so the two of them were sent through here together, though they were a special case. Kara’s a lot like them, actually…” he mumbled.

                “They have something they use magic through, rather than just using their hands, right?” Ray asked.

                “Mhmm.”

                “That’d be neat to see. Someone casting a spell through a sword,” Ryan muttered.

                “You can. We can ask Kara if she’d give us a demonstration,” Joel said.

                “Yeah right. She has other things to do, other people to see,” Caleb retorted.

                “Like her teammates,” Ryan quipped.

                Gavin rolled his eyes, “I have a brother not involved in this system.”

                “Me too,” Michael said, ignoring the conversation everyone else was having about Kara. After about an hour passed, Gavin’s alarm clock beeping loudly.

                “Damn. Time to get ready for class,” Ray laughed.

                “Did you do that during your sleeplessness or what?” Michael asked.

                “You mean turn my alarm on? I do that every day, you dope,” Gavin said, smiling. Sometimes they could get along. Sometimes.


	7. Gimme Shelter

                As an eighth grader, one would not anticipate spending the winter of their ninth grade year not taking finals, but instead sparring with a dorm mate  in a snowy field in the center of the school building.

                The Achievement Hunter boys were scrimmaging against each other, in a way. On one “team” was Joel, Jack, and Michael. On the other was Gavin, Ray, and Ryan. Inside, Geoff was purposefully injuring himself repeatedly, giving Caleb practice. He’d slice his arm open, chop almost entirely through his leg, even go as far as impaling himself on his sword. The boy was incredibly skilled, he’d admit, Caleb having healed all of his self-inflicted wounds exceptionally well.

                They heard bickering from outside, understanding from times past what had happened. “X-ray and Vav” would specifically target Joel and Michael, harassing them until one snapped. It usually involved Gavin shooting Michael and he’d start shouting profanities at the boy and about how unfair he was being.

                “Alright, alright! We’re done! Michael, you’re dead, go hang out with Caleb,” Geoff shouted from the doorway. He walked out, Caleb following close behind. Michael stomped over to where Caleb had leaned against the window wall.

                “Goddammit,” Michael muttered, fuming next to Caleb.

                “Eh, I’d get used to it. They have to learn what to do if you down anyway, and you need to learn how to be healed,” Caleb grinned at the end.

                “I can heal myself, thank you,” Michael pouted, folding his arms in front of himself.

                “And if your leg nearly comes off, what’ll you do?” Caleb sneered.

                “Uh…”

                “Exactly. That’s what I’m trained to do,” he smiled again.

                “Cut my leg off?”

                “Heal it if it does.”

                “Ah.” The two watched from where they were standing. Joel shot a few well aimed rocks at Gavin, knocking him off his perch. He screamed as he fell, causing everyone to laugh loudly at him.

                “Gavin, you’re dead. Go hang out with Caleb,” Geoff ordered.

                “Bollocks,” Gavin muttered.

                “You killed yourself by being such an easy target. Improve your hiding place and you won’t have as many problems,” Caleb explained, pointing to a different spot in the tree he’d been in, “from there, you should have a vantage point of the entire field AND not be seen so easily.”

                “Why’s everyone so damn smart!” Gavin exclaimed.

                “You’re supposed to be in order to go here. It’s a school for “gifted” people. We’re just thrown into combat on top of having good brains,” Michael said, “After all, brains are stronger than brawn, but it’s a shit ton better to have both.” The other two boys laughed at his statement. They laughed even harder when Ryan suddenly turned green from a spell shot by Joel.

                “You’re dead, Ryan.” Ryan trudged through the snow over to them, slowly turning back to normal.

                “That was awful,” he complained, approaching them.

                “You were bloody green!” Gavin giggled.

                “It’s not easy being green,” Ryan smiled as he quoted Kermit the Frog. On the field, Jack collapsed, his hands suddenly chained to the ground.

                “Jack, you’re dead. Ray, release him so he can join the medic and the afterlife,” Geoff grinned widely at his last statement.

                “I don’t know how to do that!” Ray shouted.

                “Make a handcuff with your right hand around your left wrist and remove it,” Joel shouted, showing him. Ray imitated him and Jack rose from the snowy ground.

                “Is that really how magic works?” Gavin shouted.

                “More or less. I just taught him the silent release spell rather than the spoken one,” Joel shrugged.

                “That’s how simple silent spells are?!” Ray shrieked.

                “You were thinking about it releasing him, right?”

                “Yeah.”

                “If you know the incantation to the spell you want or what the spell does and the hand motion, you can cast any spell silently. Think the incantation, do the motion, cast the spell.”

                “Magic is suddenly much more interesting,” Ryan said from his spot in the snow. He’d built a little wall around himself, his shoulders slowly getting covered in snow.

                “Eh. It’s not as great as you’d think,” Caleb shrugged. “I mean, you have to memorize so much stuff in order to be any good. That’s mainly why I chose to focus in medicinal since there’s like, ten spells.”

                “Really now?” Gavin asked, looking over to him.

                “Mhmm. I get really good at those and I become an expert. Kinda like how you get really good at shooting a bow, or Michael gets really good at using a sword.”

                “Okay boys. Let’s head inside for a few,” Geoff instructed as he walked through the field in between Joel and Ray towards the door.

                After a few minutes of brushing snow off and changing into some more reasonable attire, all of the Hunters had gathered in the upstairs section of the room.

                “So if you’ve been keeping track of the days, there’s about a week before Christmas now. I’m not intentionally being rude if you don’t celebrate it, it’s just kind of a landmark in time. None of us are really planning on forcing you to come and train on that day. So, if you want, tomorrow we’re being told as groups to go out and get trees for around the place. Michael, Gavin, you have an idea on where we’re going. A ways away from the lake, there’s an area full of pine trees. We’ve been assigned to get those while other groups have been assigned to go get other things seeing as there’s a celebration in the mess hall that day,” Geoff informed them.

                “So we get to go down by the now frozen lake and go get trees. Fun,” Jack commented.

                “Better than doing nothing,” Ray said.

                “So we’re spending tomorrow doing that?” Joel asked.

                “Yep. And you’re dismissed for today,” Geoff ended. 

* * *

One could say the snow was harder the 17th of December as the snowy conditions became more blizzard-like. During the night, Monty had summoned Kerry and Miles once again to their meeting area in the woods.

                “In the morning, you’re to go onto the lake and wait. Mr. Ramsey is to go down there today and he knows what happened on the hill. You are to kill him on site. Get the others to go with you and make sure no one else sees what happens. If anyone else is there besides you guys, kill them. I don’t care who they are, you understand?” Monty ordered.

                “We do,” the boys said in unison, Kerry fidgeting with the hem of his pajama shirt.

                “Alright. I’ll check and see how you do tomorrow night,” Monty said, leaping inhumanly high away, effectively ending their meeting.

                The two walked back silently to their dorm room.

                “Miles?” Kerry asked as he closed their door.

                “Hmm?”

                “Is it bad to be scared? Is it bad that I’m afraid of what we’re doing?”

                “No. There’s nothing wrong with being scared. I’m scared too,” Miles said, talking to his knees as he grabbed fistfuls of the blanket draped over his bed.

                “Are you sure?” Kerry asked, looking at Miles for the first time since he’d been woken up for the “meeting.”

                “Yeah… I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being scared.”

                “And if I’m having second thoughts on joining this other team?”

                “No need to feel guilty. After hearing that Monty killed that girl and guy helping out in Babel, I started thinking we’d made a mistake accepting his offer. Not much we can do now though,” Miles shrugged. Kerry walked over and sat next to Miles on his bed, leaning against him.

                “I’m scared. What’ll happen if they find out about what we’re doing?”

                “They’ll probably kill us,” Miles said, knowing what it was doing to Kerry. The idea had been eating him alive since he’d first thought about it.

                Kerry was quiet for a long time before he whispered, “Can I sleep here tonight?”

                “Sure.” Miles crawled up to the head of his bed, pulling the covers down. Kerry climbed over and laid on his side, Miles spooning him.

                “This will never not be weird to do,” Miles laughed quietly, feeling drowsy.

                “Eh. It makes this feel less lonely, I guess. I think that’s why I’m okay with doing this,” Kerry mumbled groggily. The two were asleep shortly afterwards, neither caring of the predicament they found themselves in the next morning. 

* * *

Caleb slept for the first time in five months for longer than two hours. Caleb slept for all of ten hours, falling asleep as soon as his head touched his bed. He woke up a few hours after that and moved to a more proper sleeping place on his bed and slept like a rock.

                As a child, his sleeping habits almost mirrored that of a fortune teller. He’d always sleep hard and long when something very bad or very good was about to happen. The first time he’d gotten a 100% on a test, he’d slept since three thirty in the afternoon the day before. The day before he and his brother were told they would be going to Conquistador, he’d slept for nine hours straight. Before he was told his grandfather had died, he’d slept an entire day. True, he was sick, but even then, that was more than usual for him being down with a fever.

                When he awoke the following morning, he could feel an almost ominous presence following him. He seemed nervous and on edge from the moment he’d begun becoming conscious. He didn’t like the feeling the day had surrounding it. 

* * *

Gavin had fallen asleep on the foot of Michael’s bed while playing around in Dark Cloud, a game he’d found when they were given permission to look through the things Andrew and Nathan had left. He’d been playing it off and on since then, only making it to the seaside town, Queens, just before he’d fallen asleep. Michael made do with what he had left of his bed, draping a blanket over the brit as he slept peacefully.

                The two woke up laying side by side, Gavin having crawled up the bed while Michael slept. Michael didn’t really mind, having understood his deep sleep habits. Resembling that of someone suffering from OCD, Gavin would only move in his sleep on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. This Thursday seemed no different from the others, Michael getting up and making breakfast while Gavin groggily complained about how tired he was, even though he’d gotten far more sleep than Michael. 

* * *

Ray slept as he always did, lightly and waking up every time he heard a noise. He heard when a door down the hall opened, when the door leading outside opened and closed twice, and when the door closed again. He didn’t really think anything of it at first, seeing as he’d done something similar just a few weeks ago. He only became suspicious after they came back in, not having spent enough time outside to really accomplish anything that would need a reason to leave the building. He didn’t sleep the rest of the night, pondering what someone might be doing outside.

* * *

Ryan and Jack had fallen asleep as they had done since the first of December, curled around each other on the floor with controllers loosely on the floor and a pause screen on the tv.

                Jack wakes up when Ryan moves, typically getting up to get dressed and get a bowl of cereal or something. Tonight, though, Ryan was tossing and turning, waking Jack up and causing the boy to crawl under his bed and sleep, the space cramped.

                Ryan woke up around six that morning, kicking Jack under his bed to wake him up.

                “Not every day you get woken up with a kick to the stomach,” Jack complained.

                “Not every day we get to cut trees down,” Ryan shrugged, getting dressed in his armor.

                “Hmm…” Jack crawled out from under his bed, groaning. He looked at the bright red numbers on his alarm clock. “Why is it so dark out? It’s usually at least getting brighter by now…”

                “Thicker clouds, heavier snow, stronger winds,” Ryan shrugged.

                “Winter’s coming,” the two said in unison, laughing afterwards. 

* * *

Joel slept. He overslept, in fact. He slept through his alarm three times, getting up at 7:45. He momentarily panicked, calming when he left his room to go meet up with the group at 8:05. 

* * *

Geoff followed his typical motions of the night. He’d get on Skype and wait until the little green cloud appeared next to the name The Ramsey House of Parties.

                He would wait about a minute before clicking the Video Call button and waiting. After a moment, a pretty girl with blonde hair would appear and wave.

                “Hey,” she’d usually say.

                “Hey,” he’d usually reply.

                “Good day?”

                “Good day. You?”

                “Good. Very good.” By then, there would usually be shouting from a small voice and behind the pretty girl, a child would come running.

                “Hi Daddy!” the child would typically say, the girl allowing the child to climb onto her lap.

                “Hey sweetie. How’s school?” he’d ask his daughter.

                “Good. But it’s always good. How’s your school?” she’d ask him daily.

                “Good. I still have to work with those dumb boys though,” he’d say, smiling.

                “When can we come visit?” she’d ask, already understanding why he couldn’t come home.

                “When it’s safe. Mommy will get you here when it’s safe, right?”

                “Of course! Why would I not come and bring this cutie to play with your stinky boys!” Geoff’s wife would say, smiling brightly and giggling at her statement.

                “Well, I’ll make sure to tell Burnie to get his butt in gear so you can play in all this snow with them.”

                “It’s snowing there?!” he daughter shouted that particular night.

                “How long has it snowed so far?” his wife asked.

                “Since the first of the month.”

                “Well make sure there’s snow for us when we come,” his daughter said.

                “I’ll put a snowball in the freezer so you can throw it at someone while you’re here,” he stuck his pinky out. His daughter did the same on the other side of the camera.

                “Well, I think daddy needs to go to bed so he can fight off baddies tomorrow,” his wife said, aiming more at their daughter than him.

                “The baddies of Christmas trees. How dreadful,” he joked.

                “That’s tomorrow?” she asked.

                “My group of defenders and I get to do that tomorrow.”

                “Who’s in charge of decorating this year?”

                “Kathleen’s group of prodigies get to decorate the mess hall. They’re doing that Sunday, though. Gus’s group is decorating the trees and main building.”

                “They divided up decorating?”

                “We don’t need to buy very much so Burnie’s getting the little things.”

                “Geez.”

                “We decorated out tree last weekend,” his daughter piped up.

                “Can I see it tomorrow? I’m very tired.”

                “Yeah!”

                “Alright, well good night you two lovely ladies,” he said, waving.

                “Goodnight Daddy!” his daughter said as his wife waved, ending their call. Geoff went to bed after that, a feeling of dread for the next day bubbling in his stomach.


	8. The Walk

                The Hunters met in Room 3 on Saturday. The room was lit by the fluorescent lights overhead, white washing the room even more than it already was.

                “Alright, so because of the amount of snow piling around the lake, it’ll be easier for us to just walk across the lake rather than around it. That’s really all I have to say before we head out,” Geoff stated before he led the way out of the room.

                The group trekked through the blizzardy conditions until they were under the trees, where the snow hadn’t quite begun piling up as high. They were quiet most of the way there. About five yards from the edge of the lake, Geoff came to a dead stop.

                “What’s wrong?” Joel whispered, leaning close to Geoff.

                “I can’t feel my hand. Something’s up,” he whispered back. Joel motioned for Gavin to get into a tree and pass information to them.

                Gavin looked at a tree somewhat close to the edge of the lake, pointing to a spot and looking at Caleb. Caleb nodded and Gavin walked toward the tree, the lanky boy able to climb with ease.

                As he perched himself up there, he witnessed what looked like an argument between members Kathleen’s group, RWBY. 

* * *

Miles didn’t like this. He didn’t like standing on the frozen lake in a blizzard, he didn’t like putting his friends through this, he didn’t like anything about this. And neither did Barbara.

                “Miles, I can’t. We’ll all die if we do this and… And I’d much rather be put in prison for treason than killed for murder and treason. I’m sorry, but I’m not staying here for yours and my own deaths,” the blonde said angrily, stomping away. Arryn followed her, not questioning her actions.

                “Come on guys, it’s not gonna be that bad. They wouldn’t kill us, right?” Miles said, voice cracking.

                “Miles…” Kara said sadly, watching Barbara and Arryn walk off into the forest.

                “Go. Just save yourselves now…” Miles stated, making it an option for the four still standing nearby.

                Lindsay and Kara looked back and forth between each other and Miles. Lindsay patted Shane’s shoulder before she walked over to Kara. He followed her, though he turned to stand by Kerry and Miles.

                “She says she’s sorry,” Shane said as he took his place next to Kerry.

                “She has no reason to be sorry. I drug her into this. I put her in this situation and at risk. I’m the one who should be sorry,” Miles mutters.

                “I joined willingly, Miles, you know that. It’s not your fault entirely,” Kerry says, patting his back.

                “Let’s just be ready when they get here,” Shane said, taking out a handgun and loading it with glowing blue bullets.

                “Now isn’t the time for paint balls,” Miles joked, a smile appearing on his face.

                “Not paint. Kara and I have been working on this for a couple weeks. It’s capsuled magic. It’s like an explosive round,” Shane explained.

                “I think he’s here,” Kerry stated, pointing towards where the Achievement Hunters were standing. 

* * *

Gavin wrote out what he saw on a small slip of paper. He tied it to an arrow and shot it, the arrow landing left of Geoff.

                “RWBY Boys. Girls left. Shane armed,” the note simply read. Geoff nodded to Gavin, the boy positioning himself in a more balanced and strong stance on his branch. Geoff turned around to the other boys.

                “It’s Miles, Kerry, and Shane. The girls were there but they left. They’re armed and need to be considered dangerous. Joel, I need you to cast a barrier around the lake. Don’t cut Gavin out though. I want all of you to stay behind the barrier except Ray. Ray, go stand next to Gavin’s tree. You two are gonna be my back up. Only, an only if I’m shot down do I want you to come in,” Geoff ordered the rest of the group. “Caleb, have your spells ready in an instant. There will be injuries if what I’m think is right.” Caleb nodded, quietly murmuring different spells.

                Ray moved to Gavin’s tree and Joel moved his hands directly in front of his chest, palms out. A barrier appeared, clear and sparkling, and separated Geoff, X-ray, and Vav from the rest of the Achievement Hunters.

                Geoff stepped onto the lake and gained the three boys attention. As he moved forward, his right arm slowly became number. He raised his left hand in surrender, “I’m not here to fight you. I’m not-“ the echo of a gunshot deafened him, searing pain in his right shoulder cutting his statement short.

                As Geoff collapsed to the ground, Gavin fired a well-aimed arrow at Kerry’s knee, causing the short boy to collapse. Kerry and Gavin began fight each other, the muffled sounds of Ray’s muttered spells the only sound to their battle.

                Joel took the barrier down when he saw Geoff falter and watched Kerry fall. The other boys bolted into the battle, each aiming themselves at a target. Caleb ran to Geoff, using the blue magic pooled in shoulder to enhance the power of his spell. Joel ran to Ray, enchanting the boy’s armor. He’d tried making his way around the other boys, Michael, Gavin, and Geoff being the only ones whose armor wasn’t enchanted. Ryan and Jack planned to double team Miles, taking the prodigy down fast and efficiently. Michael drew his sword and ran for Shane, hoping to take the kid down.

                Gavin had begun descending down the tree as Kerry nursed his knee a bit. He stood on a large branch near the bottom of the tree, his archery stance replacing his balanced crouch.

                “Mark Nutt!” Gavin screamed, hitting Kerry in the lower back with another arrow.

                Gavin’s outburst distracted Michael slightly. He smiled as his reference to the game “The Lads” and Geoff had played the previous Sunday after everyone had “died.” Michael ran close to Shane and slashed him down the chest. He put little force behind the attack, the cut only meant to hinder the boy rather than kill him. Shane staggered back a few steps, his breathing heavy.

                “You can stop now, Shane. I’ve shown my only mercy to you,” Michael warned. His stance relaxed as he watched what he believed was Shane turning the safety back on his gun.

                “See? We’ll just have-“ Shane fired another round. The sudden pain blinded Michael, his vision going white. He felt himself fall backwards and hit the layer of snow on the ice. He felt when his left side started feeling more warm than cold. He slowly regained his vision, the pain melting away only for a moment. He knew it was probably his body going into shock. He sluggishly lifted his right hand, trying to find his wound. He felt his shoulder and moved down, finding the hole a little lower than right next to his armpit. It started getting harder for him to keep his eyes open, his vision blackening around the edges. He was feeling light-headed.

                _Maybe if I close my eyes, I’ll feel a bit better._

                He closed his eyes, darkness overtaking him. 

* * *

Gavin screamed. He screamed for the silent Michael who was turning the snow around him red. Caleb was the only one who responded to Gavin’s scream, looking up and around from Geoff.

                “Go!” Geoff shouted at him. He rose and grabbed his sword’s handle, drawing it as he approached Shane, suspecting he had shot Gavin. He didn’t see Michael.

                Jack moved away from Ryan, taking on Kerry for Gavin, who he believed to be injured. Kerry had more or less given up, for he just sat there. Jack kneeled by him.

                “If I don’t kill anyone, it’s only treason. Not murder and treason,” Kerry muttered. “I’m done.”

                “That’s a good choice,” Jack nodded, proud of the boy.

                “Your friend’s gonna die if you don’t do something,” Kerry said, pointing to Michael.

                “Caleb’s got it under cont-“ he looked towards where Kerry was pointing, stopping his statement short at the sight.

                Gavin had jumped from his spot in the tree and sprinted to Michael’s side. Caleb had gotten confused on what had happened, standing slightly shocked where Gavin had past him. Gavin had collapsed next to Michael, chanting the only healing spell he knew; one that would stop the bleeding and nothing more. 

* * *

Gavin was crying as he chanted the words. He hoped more than anything that Michael would be okay. They were Team Nice Dynamite! He was his Mogar to his Vav (Well, Ray was his X-ray to his Vav, but he still liked Mogar and Vav more)! Michael had to be okay. He couldn’t die now.

                “Please be okay… Now isn’t the time to faff about Micool…” Gavin sobbed. “You gotta help me play video games better… And we were gonna play Amnesia when your mum sent you your desktop… And other stuff…”

                Caleb skidded on the snow and ice next to Michael’s head, shoving Gavin’s hands out of the way. His hands glowed a mixture of lavender and lime green, the two swirling together as he healed Michael.

                Michael groaned, face squishing up in pain. He blinked slowly, regaining his shortly lost consciousness.

                “Micool!” Gavin said quietly, the sounds from the battle going on behind them audible.

                “Fucking shit this hurts!” Michael groaned.

                “It’s gonna. I can’t heal the whole thing since you need a transfusion and will have to go to the hospital anyway. They’d find it weird if you came in perfectly fine and needed a blood transfusion,” Caleb muttered. Michael squinted his eyes shut tightly and clenched his fists, trying to be quiet.

                Gavin stepped over Michael, giving Caleb more room to work. He brushed some of his unruly hair out of his eyes, trying to be soothing.

                “Gavvers,” Michael said weakly.

                “Yes Micool?”

                “You’re my boy, Gavin.”

                “You’re my boy, Micool.” Michael face relaxed suddenly, his body going limp, almost imitating a comical form of death. Gavin placed his head on Michael’s stomach, sitting still. 

* * *

Shane had watched the scene he’d caused from the ground. Geoff had bashed into him with the flat side of his sword, shoving the kid down.

                “You see what you did! You’re a murderer,” Geoff seethed, Shane’s eyes wide.

                “I… I…”

                “You what? You three were here intending to kill us and you’re feeling guilty now that you actually did it?”

                “No… I… I didn’t mean… I didn’t want him to die…” Shane stuttered. He felt every negative emotion wash through him, each directed at himself. He despaired at the thought of doing what Barbara had warned about, he loathed the fact he’d done this himself, he agonized over the fact that it was over. He was to die, to be executed almost like he’d done with Michael. He’d rather be dead than live with the fact he’d murdered his fellow classmate. 

* * *

Joel and Ray remained away from the battle. Fighting fire with fire would melt the lake, the two had decided. Joel did pity Shane for what he was feeling. He’d been through the same when he provided support for his late friends against their enemy last June. Ray mourned the thought of his lost friend. The two stood side by side, supporting each other as they watched the fight come to a close. 

* * *

Kerry knew he wouldn’t be executed. He knew he’d be imprisoned and that he would relive the scene of his dear friend shooting a boy no different than them. He’d live with the thought of not doing anything to help. His heart ached as he watched the sandy haired boy cry into the other’s jacket.

                Jack said nothing, only hanging his head at what had happened. 

* * *

Ryan had locked Miles in a position where he had to watch what Shane had done, the shorter boy’s hands behind his back.

                “You caused this Miles,” he whispered into the dark haired boy’s ear.

                “I know! And I’m sorry!” Ryan eyes widened slightly, not expecting that. “I told them to leave. Mr. Monty only said to get those involved who wouldn’t turn on him, so I got those closest to me to join him. All of RWBY, really. But he said we had to kill Mr. Ramsey today because he knew what Monty did in November and he couldn’t have any witnesses and then you all came and now… And now my friend is going to be killed as ruthlessly as he did what he’s been trained to do. Fight a threat,” Miles cried loudly. Ryan released him, the boy falling to his knees and crying. “I’m sorry…” 

* * *

Caleb stayed quiet, silently continuing to cast the healing and clotting spells. He said nothing as he felt Michael’s shallow breaths and had to continue blocking blood flow. The boy would live, but he needed better medical attention than him.

                “Geoffrey! I think now’s the time to pull out!” he shouted after a few. Geoff nodded, grabbing a walkie-talkie that he and the other staff carried with them.

                “Burns, this is Ramsey. We have several injuries at the lake and are in need of medical evac. Over.”

                There was some static before anything came through. “Did your kids fucking try attacking each other with chainsaws? I told you they were five year olds,” Burnie joked through the walkie-talkie.

                “One of my students is either dead or dying,” he said, no humor on his face or in his voice.

                There was a long period of silence before Burnie responded, his humor gone, “I’ll call for medical evac. You’re on the lake? Over.”

                “Yes.”

                “They’ll be there shortly.”

                Caleb watched as Michael slowly moved his hand, touching Gavin’s thigh. He stopped responding again after the motion.


	9. Someone, Anyone

                It was the 23rd of December. In the large city across the state line, the Achievement Hunters and RWBY kids had been in and out of the hospital. They were coming and visiting friends, classmates, team mates, getting discharged and readmitted, getting check-ups, all the normal medical things. From the day they had arrived, two boys were still in the hospital recovering from wounds.

                Kerry’s arrow injuries had gotten infected after he was released on the 19th, so he was readmitted to fight the infection and hopefully not let it happen again.

                Michael, though, was a different story.

                He’d fallen into a “self-defensive coma,” his doctor had mentioned once. “He’d wake up when his body deemed his wounds healed enough and that he was no longer in danger.” So far, he’d been unconscious for five days. His wounds were cleaner than Kerry’s due not being quite as crudely made as his.

                The doctors said nothing about the odd nature of Michael’s wound, about how it wouldn’t bleed or how it was healing far faster than it should be. It almost seemed that the doctors knew what was special about his case.

                Gavin hadn’t left the small hospital room they’d put Michael in. He wouldn’t leave for any reason. If the doctors had to do something that required him leaving the room, he’d plug earbuds in and sit in the room’s bathroom. If they took Michael off for tests, he’d follow behind. He seemed to have a string wrapped around his wrist, pulling him where ever Michael went.

                Geoff had stayed for as long as he could, finding the room somewhat boring when the other boys weren’t there. The other boys would talk like they had after training, about different things they enjoyed, things they hated, attributes in people that bugged them, questions they had about anything, just talking. He’d leave as the sun set every day and sleep in the waiting room on that floor, it being converted into a sort of mass sleeping room full of gurneys for the other boys stranded there. 

* * *

Miles had come into Michael’s room and talked to Gavin on the previous day. He’d talked about what Monty had said, what his thoughts were and how they changed over such a short period of time. He apologized repeatedly, regretting everything he’d done.

                “I didn’t mean for anyone to die, really… I was told to kill Mr. Ramsey, but I knew I couldn’t do it… I’d probably crack under pressure and confess what I’d done… I’m sorry, Gav. I really am sorry for hurting your friend…”

                “It’s alright, I guess. They said he’d be fine soon, it’s just something he has to get through,” Gavin looked down at his feet. “But thanks for explaining. It may cause Burnie to give you a break.”

                “I already talked to Burnie. He said it’ll be Michael’s decision what happens to me and Kerry and Shane… Seeing how we’re the ones that caused him to get hurt.”

                “I hurt Kerry. I don’t think Kerry needs to be involved in that,” Gavin grinned slightly.

                “True. But, uh, add this to the little pile there,” Miles pointed to the cards the boys had been making while they were trapped in the hospital, trying to at least make it look like people cared in both his and Kerry’s rooms. Miles’s card was in an envelope; his graceful chicken scratch handwriting wrote “Mogar” on the front.

                “Who told you about this?” Gavin asked, turning the envelope to face him.

                “Ray. He mentioned a lot about you guys… I think I like how Michael every once in a while messes up and calls Geoff dad or some other thing,” Miles smiled at Michael.

                “We all call Geoff dad as a joke outside of training and away from him. Michael is the only one that slips up and says it while he’s around,” Gavin grinned. “But Ray’s mentioned Mogar, huh? So he’s probably also talked about our team names, yeah?”

                “How you’ve got different duos and stuff, yeah. You and Michael came up with a name a long time before then though, right?”

                “Team Nice Dynamite. We came up with that after I got hurt by the lake,” Gavin smirked at the irony.

                “I think it fits. Michael kinda explodes every now and again, right? Like he’s some dynamite. And you’re pretty nice,” Miles looked Gavin in the eyes the first time for the entire conversation.

                “I’m an arsehole, Miles. The guys will tell you that. But I’m generally nice to people, yes.”

                “Is it okay? My apology to you?” Miles questioned, standing up from his chair.

                “It’s okay for me. Michael’s another case, but I’m okay with it,” Gavin nodded to him.

                “Well, I’ll wait for my sentence in Kerry’s room then,” Miles grinned, leaving the room.

                Gavin readjusted himself back on the edge of Michael’s bed, talking to him about different things. He’d read the cards everyone’d made, tell him what he thought of the doctors, what his room looked like. Gavin’s favorite thing he’d done those days was read what the doctors had written on his chart at the end of his bed. He could only read about half of the words scribbled onto the sheet, making up words and using different slang terms from the letters he couldn't decipher. Geoff filmed that for Michael to see when he woke up.

                “Go easy on him, Micool. He didn’t mean to put us in the gaff, or for this to happen,” Gavin said, brushing the strands of hair that had fallen into his eyes away. “I’m going to bed Micool. Just shout if you need anything,” Gavin patted his forehead before getting up and climbing into the gurney they’d replaced one of the chairs with, allowing the tall boy to stay in the room with Michael. They’d done the same for Miles and Kerry. 

* * *

The next day, Thursday, was no different than any day. They’d do some response tests on Michael in the room, the boy flinching when put through pain from a needle prick on the sole of his foot and not responding to anything else. They predicted he’d be unconscious over Christmas and that all the boys should go out and have some fun.

                “What if he wakes up while we’re gone?” Gavin asked.

                “We’ll call you if he does,” Michael’s primary doctor stated. “Don’t worry. I doubt he’ll wake up while you’re gone.” He left Gavin in the room with Michael, not allowing anyone into the room.

                “Well this is ‘orrible,” Gavin complained quietly, taking his usual spot next to Michael. He’d turned on the PS2 Burnie had shipped them, sending them several things from their rooms that he had broken into for them to use while they were stranded in the foreign city. Thankfully, he’d sent the game Gavin had been playing for the past few weeks to him, allowing the boy to make progress when he was left alone with Michael. He’d finally made it to Yellow Drop, getting stuck on the boss there when he felt some shuffling on the bed.

                “Micool?” Gavin turned around to see Michael shimmying towards his right, squinting his eyes tighter as he did so.

                “Micool?!” Gavin shouted, his voice straining slightly. He dropped his controller on the ground, not particularly caring what happened to it. He fully turned his body to face Michael.

                “Stop shouting…” Michael mumbled quietly. He blinked his eyes open repeatedly, continuing to squint against the bright light.

                Gavin nearly leapt on top of Michael, surprising the occupant of the bed with a kiss on his forehead. He repeatedly kissed various spots on his face, unable to control himself.

                “What are you doing?” Michael said, shoving Gavin away slightly, getting him to stop.

                “You’re okay…” Gavin uttered, voice still strained. He leaned forward until their foreheads touched. “You’re okay.” He smiled, relief washing over his entire face.

                “Of course I’d be okay. We have Caleb, the master of medics. Where are we anyway? Is this one of the houses in town? Are they equipped with this shit?” Michael said, glancing around the room.

                “Nah. We’re in the nearest city with a hospital. Apparently, they get a few students every once and a while with strange injuries.”

                “What the fuck happened then?” Michael asked, confused as to why he was there.

                “You were shot, you donut. Don’t you remember?” Gavin asked him back.

                “I remember that, but I also remember Caleb healing me. Wasn’t he enough?”

                “You lost a lot of blood, Micool. Even if he’d healed you entirely, you’d still have needed to come to the hospital to get more blood.”

                “What about everyone else then? I hurt Shane pretty badly and you shot Kerry with a shitload of arrows. What about them?”

                “They’re here. Shane got discharged, but we all have to stay here. We aren’t allowed to know where we are until we’re older. So we’re all sleeping around the hospital.”

                “So that bed over there is…”

                “Mine. They’re letting me stay in here with you.”

                “I see,” Michael nodded slightly, looking back up at Gavin’s eyes. _Pretty._

                “Micool?” Gavin asked after a few moments of them sitting like that.

                “Hmm?”

                “Are you okay?”

                “I feel fine. Did it stop snowing while I was out?”

                “Nope. Burnie said it stopped being such a blizzard though, just snowing like it had been before. Not surprising seeing how long you were out, though,” he muttered at the end, glancing away momentarily.

                “Was I out long? I couldn’t’ve been. What, like, ten hours at best.”

                “Today is the fifth day.”

                “No.”

                “Micool, you were in a coma.”

                “No. I was asleep.”

                “Well, you can think that if you want, but you were asleep for five days.”

                “No I wasn’t.”

                “Micool, it’s Thursday.”

                “It’s Sunday.”

                “Micool,” Gavin voice became more pleading.

                Michael was almost pouting before he grinned up at Gavin, “So if it’s Thursday, that means we have to spend Christmas in the hospital.”

                “Not really. It depends on how you do when they test you. Oh right,” Gavin reached over and pushed the nurse button several times, hoping to get someone to come quickly.

                “Am I the only one in here? Christ, I expected someone else to be admitted,” Michael complained, crossing his arms as Gavin sat up.

                “Kerry’s in the room next door. His wounds got infected overnight after he was discharged. He got gross stuff in his wounds. But they’re planning on discharging him tomorrow. If you’re good, they’ll discharge you as early as tonight and we’ll be back at school by Christmas morning,” Gavin grinned. A nurse nonchalantly came in through the door, expecting one of Gavin’s strange, scientific questions. She gasped and ran out of the room when she saw Michael readjusting himself in the bed, obviously awake.

                Michael’s doctor came into the room, a look of shock overtaking his features. “We didn’t think you’d wake up before Christmas…”

                “Well, looks like I fucking proved you wrong,” Michael smirked.

                “That you did. Let’s see how you are,” his doctor walked over towards the bed. “Gavin, you’re going to need to leave. Doctor-patient privacy afterall.” Gavin rose from the bed, waving at Michael.

                “I’ll come back in a few.”

                “Enjoy yourself.” 

* * *

The Achievement Hunters didn’t expect to ever see Gavin away from Michael. He lived in Michael’s room, never leaving unless Michael was taken out of the room. So when Gavin _skipped_ down the hallway like everything in the world was fantastic, they were stunned.

                “What’s got you so happy? Dick up your ass?” Geoff joked, his humor matching that of the age group he taught.

                “Nah. Though I do have red head on my mind,” he swooned.

                “You haven’t fucking moved from his room without him. What’s up?” Ryan asked.

                “Well, he thinks he’s only been asleep for a while, not in a coma for five days. He seems normal-“

                “You mean he’s awake, yes?” Caleb said calmly, the rest looking back and forth between Gavin and Caleb rapidly.

                “What else did you think I mean?” Gavin didn’t get to finish his thought, the boys running towards Michael’s room. 

* * *

“Alright, we’re gonna do some tests to see if you suffered any damage from the blood loss or being in a coma or anything else. We’ll start with a memory test,” his doctor simply said, holding a bunch of pictures. He held up one taken of Gavin the second day they were there, “Who’s this?”

                “Gavvers,” Michael simply stated. The doctor held up a picture of Lindsay that Geoff had on his phone, the girl wrapped up in some of the excess fabric from his armor.

                “Lindsay. She’s my friend from school.” He held up a picture of Shane.

                “That’s Shane. He shot me,” he said nonchalantly.

                “That’s a little extreme, isn’t it?”

                “It’s what he did. He’s Lindsay’s partner too.” He held up a picture of Joel, the boy covered in snow from running around outside.

                “Joel.” He held up a picture of Gruntilda from Banjo Kazooie.

                “That’s Gruntilda. She’s the witch you fight in Banjo Kazooie,” Michael smiled.

                “You got all of those right. Now let’s see if you can recognize some stuff around the room,” he said, pointing to the TV, “What’s that?”

                “That’s Dark Cloud. Gavin’s been playing it recently for some reason. We found it in Andrew’s room,” Michael shrugged.

                “Who’s Andrew?” his doctor asked.

                “Andrew’s the girl that made the outfit I was in when we got here. She, uh…” Michael stopped, thinking about if he should confide that much in his doctor.

                “I won’t say a word about anything you say in here. I’ll only say how your results are from my tests,” he reassured the red head.

                “She and her husband Nathan were killed last month. We were given permission to take what we wanted since they didn’t have a will and don’t have any connections to their families or anyone to leave anything to,” Michael said, looking at his hands.

                “I see…” the man took out another picture with a diagram of a man standing on a ladder leaning against a building. “Tell me what you know about this picture.”

                “It’s a diagram to tell what length of ladder would be needed to reach a certain height. It’s used to teach the Pythagorean Theorem to kids. The ladder would need to be twelve feet, by the way. The triangle made by the ladder is a 30-60-90 triangle, making this problem beyond simple. Challenge me, sir,” Michael simply stated, grinning. He jumped in his spot a little when there was a loud bang outside of his door, something crashing into the door. He started laughing when he heard several people outside the door swearing loudly.

                “I’m going to test your feeling to see if there was any nerve damage from your injury and then I’ll let them in, alright?” his doctor grinned, knowing who was outside the door.

                “Alright,” Michael agreed willingly. The doctor asked him to do simply things like wiggle his toes and fingers, passing both tests easily. His doctor began poking up his arm with a needle, asking him if he felt it. He failed when the needle poked around the injury, the doctor seeming to anticipate that.

                “Alright then, Mr. Jones, from my tests it seems all you’ll need is some physical therapy to help keep motion in your shoulder. Otherwise, there’s really no reason to keep you here. Your neighbor, Mr. Shawcross and yourself will be discharged tomorrow morning and will be back at your school before nightfall. Merry Christmas Michael,” he said, approaching the door.

                “Merry Christmas to you too, sir,” Michael said politely. His doctor opened the door, the boys crashing through the door, Gavin and Geoff standing behind them and stepping over them into the room.

                “Hey Michael,” Geoff waved to him, approaching the right side of his hospital bed.

                “Hey Geoff. Been enjoying yourself here in hell?” he joked, Geoff patting his shoulder.

                “Been enjoying myself as best as I can. Thankfully Burnie shipped us some of our games. We’ve been yelling and screaming in here. You would’ve loved it,” Geoff said affectionately towards his student.

                “Bet I would have. But what’s stopping us from playing tonight, while I’m awake?” he asked.

                “The doctors don’t want us to tire you out. They want you to sleep and get your rest,” Caleb’s muffled voice said from the dog pile he was stuck in the middle of.

                “Which I obviously haven’t gotten enough of from the past five days, I get it,” Michael said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

                “Well, what did you think they’d want you to do? Run a marathon today?” Jack said, dragging himself out of the pile.

                “I’d prefer the marathon to sleeping more, to be honest,” Michael grinned, moving to sit on the edge of his bed and grabbing Gavin’s PS2 controller. He unpaused the boss fight and ran around for a few minutes before he began fighting the boss. He heard Gavin whine loudly from his spot on his bed.

                “Micool! I was gonna do it!”

                “You weren’t fast enough then,” Michael said, the little after boss cutscene playing.

                “Dammit!” Gavin cried out, pouting slightly. The rest of the boys laughed, setting up another game while Michael saved Gavin’s game. 

* * *

On the morning of Christmas Eve, Geoff had set up a Skype call connected to Michael’s TV. Michael was to have a meeting with Burnie and several other representatives of the Northern Lights international council about the battle on the lake and what was to be done to Miles and the other RWBY Boys.

                Burnie started the conversation, stating his opinion on the matter, “I believe the boys were convinced into doing this and from what I’ve been told by others that were at the scene at the time, Miles confessed to regretting what he had done and that none of the boys had wanted to follow through with what they were doing. Miles had wanted them all to leave, taking the blame entirely for himself seeing as he was the one who convinced the others to join the cause.”

                An oriental man was the next to speak, “But the others joined willingly and the boys all fought in this fight, their intention to kill Mr. Ramsey and his Achievement Hunter boys.”

                “But I feel he deserves some sort of mercy. Their intention may have been to kill, but none of them did that. Shane’s shots were not meant to be fatal wounds, similar to how Michael’s attacks on Shane were not meant to kill the boy, only hinder his movements,” Burnie argued.

                A Hispanic looking man was the next to speak, “I agree with Mr. Burns on this. I feel one of the representatives of the enemy tried provoking this battle using these young men to not draw attention to which group it was. And I feel Mr. Oriyami needs to take a better look at the situation.”

                A woman with short blonde hair was next to speak, “I feel Mr. Jones is the one that needs to speak about his opinion. He and Mr. Ramsey were the ones most involved, seeing as they suffered the worst of the injuries sustained on this side of the battle,” the woman smiled at the boy.

                Michael was silent as he went over the decision he had made the previous day, him and Geoff having spoken a bit about it during one of their games. “I feel that none of those boys should be punished for their decisions as heavily as you’re planning on. Yes, they were intending to murder all eight of us, so they do have intention of murder as an offense, but part of this hasn’t been considered. I feel that they were convinced to do this by the same person or people that instigated the need for our creation of groups, giving Miles and Kerry access to creating the large group that was initially meant to attack us. Miles ordered all of them to leave; Kerry and Shane disobeyed his order and stood to fight him. I’m certain that Miles was willing to accept death to save his friends from being considered murderers and traitors. I consider them to have been corrupted and to have clarified their own problems. I choose to not give them any punishment, only to have constant surveillance on them and the school to prevent an incident like this happening again,” Michael plainly stated, his typical tone taking on one of seriousness.

                “Young man, do you know what you’re saying?” Mr. Oriyami asked bewildered.

                “I’m well aware of the decision I made last night. I’m willing to entrust my life with them, so long as we know they’re on our side. This is why I ask for surveillance. If an outsider can’t convince them to do anything bad, then they’ll have no way of becoming traitors. I’ve heard a similar story to what we went through and I feel that that situation could have been prevented as well. This is why I’ve chosen this option rather than their execution or some other crazy idea you’d have to deal with them,” Michael sneered as he finished this statement. Burnie and the woman smiled at him, nodding in approval at his decision.

                “We will begin setting up surveillance and await your return, Michael,” Burnie said, cutting the call off.

                “Well done. I didn’t think you’d have such an adult response,” Geoff said, beginning to disconnect the laptop from the television.

                “I didn’t think I’d say something so… professional. I just thought it come out as ‘they did nothing fucking wrong. Someone convinced them to do it. Leave them be,’” Michael said, almost dazed by his earlier statements.

                “I didn’t think they’d think they way they did, anyway. Mr. Oriyami has always had a stick up his ass, but typically the others agree more with him than Burnie. Burnie’s kinda got a bad rep with them because of his leniency in things like this,” Geoff shrugged.

                “At least I won’t have the weight of ‘it was my decision to kill Miles, Kerry, and Shane’ on my shoulders. They’re my friends after all,” Michael said, turning on the Xbox with his controller. Geoff opened the door to allow the boys in; one of his doctors entering as well to disconnect some of the machines from his body.

                Gavin took his usual spot on Michael’s left, smiling as he grabbed the other controller on the bedside table, “I’m guessing it went well?”

                “It was tippity toppers,” Michael smiled.


	10. Another One

                Conquistador had a student body population of 126 students on day 1. On the last day of their senior year, the day before their official graduation, Conquistador had a warm body student population of 124 students. Two students had run off that day, frustrating the entire staff, seeing as they had to run off and go find them to distribute their needed supplies for the following day.

                Michael and Gavin sat under the two trees that had been planted on top of the hill outside of the town Convergence. One was an aspen tree, pale and quivering in the slight breeze. The other was a pine tree, some pines covering the ground beneath it, making it a hazardous sitting area. The sun was near its peak, the time being about ten in the morning. The boys had been running around the area for an hour or so, enjoying the nice day after some rain showers that had occurred over the past few days.

                “What are you planning on doing after we graduate tomorrow,” Gavin asked, his back against the tree, facing away from Michael.

                “Probably stay here. I like it here,” Michael said, looking at some clouds floating by.

                “This doesn’t seem like a place you’d like to stay at for a long time though. I thought you’d want to go faff around somewhere else,” Gavin said, looking over his shoulder at Michael.

                “Well, I think I’d want to do what Andrew and Nathan were doing. I want to help the next group of kids.”

                “That doesn’t sound like you, Micool,” Gavin chided.

                “I know, right? I don’t really know. Maybe go around the world, see what’s happening outside of this little town we’ve lived in for so long.”

                “Can I go? With you, I mean,” Gavin asked, his eyes hopeful.

                “Why wouldn’t you? I thought we were in this together. Team Nice Dynamite and shit. Christ, you thought I’d leave you to yourself? You’d burn the country down.”

                Gavin laughed loudly, “Are we gonna go on an adventure, Micool? Is warrior Mogar gonna save people around the world?”

                “I hope Vav helps. I can’t handle it on my own,” Michael joked. They turned when they heard shouting.

                “You two fuckers better get to the stage! Burnie’s planning on skinning you in front of the whole school!” Geoff shouted over the sound of one of the ATVs; the orange one that had a motor problem, if Michael was correct.

                The two headed over towards the edge of the hill, seeing him and Joel on two ATVs next to each other; one the broken orange one, the other Joel’s blue one. Gavin went and sat on Geoff’s metal basket on the back, giggling at something Geoff muttered. Michael sat in the same place on Joel’s.

                “You two are such a fucking pain in the ass, you know that?” Geoff complained, shouting behind him.

                “What would you do without us, Geoff?” Michael shouted back, the four of them laughing. 

* * *

The auditorium was packed. It was designed for parents to come and see their kids graduate from the school and give the kids space when they were forced to meet there for whatever reason. Parents from around the US sat next to each other, gleefully waiting to see their son or daughter graduate from the school.

                “Micool, look at them all,” Gavin muttered, the two looking out beyond the curtain they were forced to stand behind. They rehearsed the graduation the day before several times. They were to stay backstage; students that were to speak representing each class were to be in front of everyone else. They were to say their piece and head back from the other side of the stage. Then, everyone would be given a high school diploma, walk off stage via the stairs, and out of the auditorium from the back of the room.

                “It’s just about double the number of kids here. It’s not that crazy,” Michael whispered back. Currently, Burnie was explaining a bit about what the school did, not going too much into detail to make the parents at risk.

                “Now, we’ll begin with statements from some of the students about their time here. It’s sort of like a Valedictorian speech, I guess,” Burnie stated, stepping back towards the teachers and Joel, who were patiently waiting to hand out “diplomas.”

                Michael and Gavin walked out next to each other, both dressed in their armor. Gavin began the speech, “I can’t really say much about what we’ve done here and what experiences I’ve had, but I can say this was the greatest gaff I’ve been to and wouldn’t change a thing,” he simply said, handing the speech off to Michael.

                “He can’t say much because he wants me to. Lazy ass,” he smiled to Gavin who rolled his eyes. “These past four years have been dramatically different than what anyone could have prepared me for. Everyone knows about your generic high school life. Drama, drama, drama. And I’ve experienced that, just in a bit of a different way than ever before. Drama here isn’t really,” he transitioned into a valley girl sort of voice, “’Oh my god Jessica, I think Jeremy had sex with Crystal.’ It just isn’t that. It’s more of ‘did you hear there was a girl who cut the old teacher in half? No way, that can’t happen.’

                “But really, it was an experience of learning how to live, though we’re a bit more corrupt than your typical next door neighbor. We learned how to file taxes this year; that was nice of Geoff to do. We learned how to manage our money for food and clothes and not just fun things. We learned how to, well I learned how to, cook food, sew, make other shit that most people wouldn’t think they’d need to know how to do. But it’s a necessity to know these things because you can’t just go and buy what we’re wearing in a store. These were hand-made by our friends who were killed because of what we can do now.

                “Now, that’s not saying that we’re at risk because we know how to sew ourselves some socks or cook ourselves a cake. We’re at risk for what we were accepted to go here for and what we’ve learned here. Fuck, apparently there’s a kid in another class that has a hacking ability to the point where he could hack into the FBI and be undetected. But that’s somewhat beside the point. The point is what we’ve learned here has changed all of us. Maybe for the better, maybe not,” Michael finished, shrugging.

                Geoff stepped forward and stood behind them, telling more about what he did, “I taught these two and about twenty more kids this year. Not many for my class but I can say they are some of the most capable kids around. I’m willing to tell you a bit more about what we do just so you can get an idea. At the beginning of December their freshman year, two of my previous students were murdered while I was fifty feet away. About a week, no… A week before Christmas that year, we were sent to get the trees we decorate the school with. The whole place is decorated until about halfway through January with lights and trees and other silly things. Anyway, we being several other boys that I was assigned to train as a group for safety precautions, we were sent to get the trees. On the lake nearby were a few other students, one being one of mine. They had been convinced to turn traitor. They were ordered to kill me and anyone else who saw; so all of the boys. We fought against them. I was shot almost in the exact same place I was several years earlier. Thankfully, though, we had a competent medic on our team who healed the new wound and the old one, letting me be a capable fighter again.

                “However, we didn’t go unscathed. Shane, my other students, had a large slash across his chest and has a scar there now. Kerry, one of Gus’s students, had arrow wounds and had to be admitted into the hospital due to infection. And Michael, lovely Michael here,” Michael rolled his eyes dramatically, getting a chuckle from the audience, “Michael was shot right here,” Geoff pointed to where the injury had been, “and fell into a ‘self-defensive coma’ for several days. Thankfully, though, he woke up. And here he is today, telling you what a wonderful time he had here.”

                “And what a wonderful time it was,” Michael said, bowing his head. Gavin and Geoff followed suit before stepping away from the microphone, Gavin and Michael going back stage to where their class was lined up. Michael stopped by Lindsay for a moment though.

                “Excited?” he asked her.

                “Thrilled. I liked your speech, Michael “Rage” Jones,” she smiled at him.

                “Rage? I thought I was better known as Mogar,” he stated.

                “And I thought Geoff didn’t know everyone called him daddy,” she rolled her eyes as he walked towards his spot in line.

                The large group of students patiently listened to everyone’s speech. After Michael and Gavin were Kerry and Miles, and after them were Jack and Ryan. When Jack and Ryan made their way backstage again, Burnie stepped forward to the microphone and spoke, “Now, we’ll begin the finale of this ceremony; the handing out of diplomas. Your kids are graduating from a weird high school in the middle of nowhere, how exciting is that?” he asked, the crowd cheering.

                “Alright, we’ll start with the Yolo class, taught by Gus Sorola,” Burnie announced. Gus stepped forward and read off the names in alphabetical order. Joel handed them their diplomas while Burnie shook their hands. Michael and Gavin screamed from their spots in line when Caleb and Ray’s names were read off. They could hear when Joel shouted that they were done with Yolo as the last of them walked through the exit door to go upstairs and wait.

                “Let’s move on to Bty, taught by Kathleen Zuelch,” Gus announced, trading places with Kathleen. She did the same as Gus had, the process being no different than before. Michael and Gavin did the same thing they’d done before when Ryan and Jack’s names were read, happy for them.

                “And finally, the Babel class, taught by Geoffrey Ramsey,” Kathleen stated, doing the same as Gus had.

                Geoff stated each name on his short list a bit differently, starting the announcement with “this bitch” or “this one dickhead” or “this cunt.” Just several different swears that had the kids laughing as they crossed the stage. “This one asshole named Gavin Free. He’s a real dickwad,” he said as Gavin walked on stage. He was giggling uncontrollably as Joel continued talking to him.

                “You’re a real asshole, Gavvy Wavvy,” Joel said, handing him his diploma. Burnie was giggling along with Gavin as they shook hands.

                Geoff went through a few more names before he stated happily, “And then there’s this angry dickhead, Michael Jones, who’s got a worse sailor’s mouth than I do.” Michael was laughing happily, Burnie and Joel joining in.

                Geoff finished off his list, smiling brightly, “Now that that’s done, go upstairs and congratulate your kids since it’s been long as dicks since you’ve seen them last,” he finished, dismissing everyone from the room. 

* * *

Michael caught up with all of the Achievement Hunters, laughing along with them about what had happened downstairs. The kids from RWBY walked over, somewhat quietly at first but then mingling into the group.

                “What are you all planning on doing after this?” Arryn asked them all.

                “We were just talking about that before you guys came over, actually. We were thinking about maybe going around the world to see what we could find out about what we know,” Jack explained.

                “That sounds pretty cool. Maybe we could all go together and do that. We could even convince the guys from that cutie patootie group to join us,” Lindsay offered.

                “That sounds great. All of us going on a huge trip around the world and learning even more,” Ryan said, waving the other group over to them.

                “That sounds fantastic! We could become good friends and rely on each other,” Caiti offered.

                “And hopefully Shane won’t try to kill me again,” Michael said, elbowing Shane in the side.

                “It was a one-time thing, Michael. Don’t expect it to happen again.”

                “Wasn’t hoping it’d happen again.”

                “Is that what we’re planning to do then? Travel all around?” Jordan asked from his spot next to his brother.

                “Don’t worry. It’ll be tippity toppers,” Gavin comforted.

                “It better fucking be or I’m leaving Gavin in the Sahara,” Michael threatened.

                “You could let him be in de-Nile,” Barbara said.

                “Get out,” the group said in unison, laughing afterwards.


End file.
